David Letterman‘s horsing around went awry.
As a joke, Letterman sent Conan O’Brien a horse as a thank-you for the heartfelt message he shared when Letterman retired from CBS’ “Late Show” show in 2015. But things didn’t go exactly as planned.
“I thought ‘Oh, this is the perfect opportunity to send a bulls–t business gift.’ So I thought, you know what I’ll do? I’ll send him a horse, because I know in Hollywood you can get livestock and stuff for shows,” Letterman told Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday night. “And I’ll get a couple of cowboys and I’ll send him out a horse and the idea will be that he’ll have the horse on the show and the horse will take a dump on the show and it’ll be hilarious.”
Letterman, 70, realized a few days later that something had gone terribly wrong.
“I get this warm, lovely letter back from Conan saying, ‘My wife loves the horse and she’s going to keep the horse because she’s an equestrian,'” he recalled. “Now I’m screwed because I was counting on him returning the horse and I get my money back.”
Kimmel joked that O’Brien had complained to him personally about the upkeep of the horse and said that the horse is “said to be unrideable.”
“There may be litigation and I may get a call from PETA,” Letterman joked.