Watch Tourists Faceplant Trying To Jump Off This Runaway Horsey Ride

Anyone who has ever taken a horse-drawn trolley ride through Vancouver's Stanley Park knows that, while scenic, it's about as exciting as riding a motorized wheelchair. Maybe even less so.

That changed Monday when a couple of horses went rogue during a routine stroll along Stanley Park Road.

The animals had stopped on the road due to the presence of anti-Kinder Morgan pipeline protesters when, according to Global News, a driver in a nearby car honked his horn, setting the horses off completely. Environmentalists could not have dreamed up a more perfect metaphor.

A brief, but highly amusing (as no one was seriously injured) video clip shows the two normally calm beasts leap over the curb and narrowly miss a tree, throwing three people in the front row, including the driver, onto the ground. Now driverless, the horses plow into a bench and continue trotting along the seawall as someone yells, "hold on!"

Not liking where this is going, a dad in the back row stands up and jumps off the trolley, heroically saving himself. He does so successfully, but when his wife and two children attempt to copy him, they each, in sequence, faceplant onto the pavement. It's not clear if the dad jumped first to help the rest of his family escape safely, but if that was his intention he didn't execute it well. He doesn't even seem all that fussed when they eat curb; the most he does is pat his wife on the shoulder. I'm guessing he's never seen Force Majeure.

Later interviewed by Global, the family said they are from Australia and were worried the horses were going to dive into the water.

"They knocked over one of the poles and then took out one of the park benches. One of the pieces of timber came up into my face, missed my face luckily, that's when we decided to make a jump for it," said mom Karen Arnold.

Jerry O'Neil, owner of the horses, said the animals are exposed to all sorts of conditions, including various noises, and that nothing like this has ever happened before.

He said the horses will be assessed, presumably to soon return to servicing lazy tourists, rather than trying to murder them.

Follow Manisha Krishnan on Twitter.