And the cow jumped over the . . .

Having a pony is one of those little girl dreams that are usually dashed by a resounding parental "nay." Most kids simply scale back their request to a puppu or another similarly manageble pet, but not Regina Mayer. Instead, she taught a cow to be her horse.

The 15-year-old in Laufen, Germany, is making headlines for jumping over logs and makeshift obstacles on the back of Luna, one of the cows on her family’s farm. Getting the bovine to wear a saddle, and perform horse-lie acrobatics, took a lot of treats and cajoling, but Luna now responds to commands such as "go," "stand," and "gallop." Mayer also used some tips from a cow-training school in Switzerland that teaches the animals such tricks as rolling out carpets with their nose. Still, Luna can be stubborn. "When she wants to do something she does it; when she doesn’t, she doesn’t," says Mayer. But, she added, her cow is so fond of her new identity, she has come to shun the company of her own species. Instead, say Mayer, Luna is "constantly following the horses around."