An early-morning German bank customer had a shock when he found a horse in line at the automatic teller machine in front of him.

Police said the horse’s owner, identified only as Wolfgang H, had too much to drink the night before and decided to sleep it off inside the bank’s heated foyer.

The 40-year-old machinist told Bild newspaper he had “a few beers” with a friend in Wiesenburg, south-west of Berlin, and decided to sleep in the bank on his way home.

“It was late, it was already dark and cold,” he was quoted as saying.

Confronted with the lack of a hitching-post, he took the six-year-old horse, named Sammy, in along with him.

When a customer came across the horse and sleeping rider in the bank early yesterday morning, he called police, who woke the owner and sent him on his way.

No charges were filed, but there might be some cleanup needed. Apparently Sammy made his own after-hours deposit on the carpet.