COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – August marked 40 years of the Columbus Division of Police’s Mounted Horse Unit, which assists with crowd control at large events and helps train horses across the state.
The division’s horses patrol numerous events in the city, including Red, White and BOOM!, the Jazz and Rib Festival and Ohio State football games. The unit’s facility sits along McKinley Avenue where the former Columbus Police Academy was located.
Built in the early 1900s, the horses’ barn was originally intended for city sanitation horses, but by the time the barn was completed, the city switched from using horses to motor vehicles, according to the City of Columbus. The police department’s horses were the first horses to occupy the barn, which is equipped with 14 stalls, an outdoor arena and an office upstairs.
The unit was established in 1984 under Columbus police’s traffic division, according to Officer Sanda Silva. A police chief at the time wanted to make Columbus officers more approachable for pedestrians.
“People were unable to get ahold of officers because they were in cars and people would try to flag them down and the officers wouldn't see them or they couldn't stop in time and he wanted actually to have a unit where he could have people could actually walk up to them, talk to them, get directions or whatever they needed,” Silva said.
The unit started with seven American Quarter Horses, one sergeant and six officers. Today, the unit has 11 horses, one sergeant and four officers. Silva said along with crowd control, the horse unit patrols neighborhoods and responds to calls for service. The unit has also assisted in missing persons searches and locating individuals who are wanted by police.
“We are actually tasked with going out and patrolling neighborhoods and other things like that, just like a regular patrol officer, we can answer runs off of the horseback,” Silva said. “We can make arrests off horseback. We can do many things off of horseback. Almost anything that the bike units can do, the horse units can do as well.”
Training the horses to be calm in chaotic environments is an elaborate task, as Silva said horses are scared of "pretty much everything" since they are prey animals. The unit attends training sessions in places such as Washington, D.C., Kentucky and Alabama.
“You have to train them to not respond in their manner they would normally respond because horses are a prey animal,” Silva said. “Everything's scary. Their reaction is run. If something scares them – run. It's something scares them behind them – kick them.”
The horses are desensitized to anything they may see in public, including umbrellas and wheelchairs. The horses interact with inflatable tube men seen at car dealerships, walk on metal grates and walk by lit flares in order to prepare them for things they may encounter on the streets. The horses experience fireworks and are prepared for days before one of Columbus’ biggest events: Red, White and BOOM!.
“We look for horses that are actually very curious because it's in their nature,” Silva said. If they're curious, then that helps us to train them towards what they need. So really every day is a training day, but they go through some very, very difficult training and some horses do not make it.”
Every month the unit holds a training session for local law enforcement agencies that use horses nearby, where outside department’s horses use Columbus’ facility and training equipment.
The unit also conducts barn tours and educational visits for scout troops, pre-schools, senior citizen centers and other community groups.
