horse
Lexington, KY - During downtown events like Thursday Night Live, the Lexington Mounted Police keep a watchful eye on noisy crowds, despite unpredictable sounds and new sights, all mounted aboard horses poised like statues.
“If the public knew what our officers went through after the two NCAA [championship men’s] basketball games, they would be flabbergasted,” said Friends of the Lexington Mounted Police board member Anne Anderson. “They had bottles thrown at them.”
To prepare for such extreme conditions, the police horses (which are also considered officers) go through extensive desensitization training and years of practice on downtown streets before they’re suitable for the unit. Thanks to a civilian’s request, the Friends of the Lexington Mounted Police, the private nonprofit fundraising arm for the unit, has held civilian sensory clinics with mounted police officers twice a year to teach horse owners some of their techniques for conquering spookiness.
The spring sensory clinic held at Masterson Station Equestrian Park in mid-May did not feature flying beer bottles, but it did include an obstacle course of platforms, cones, dummies and even an oversized stuffed monkey for owners to navigate their horses through, on the ground and from the saddle.
Horses have evolved as flight animals; their eyes are on the sides of their faces, allowing them to see nearly 360 degrees around their bodies, with blind spots directly behind and directly in front of their heads. They are programmed to notice everything, and despite their domestication, a horse’s flight instinct is a mechanism of self-preservation, alerting the animal that new or unusual things might mean danger — which becomes a problem when a truck backfires or a flyaway bag floats by on a breeze.
“This gives riders a sense of how their horse is going to handle something, and then hopefully when they leave here, they’ll go away with a better idea of how to react when their horse reacts to certain things,” said instructor and officer Lisa Rakes of the sensory clinics.
At the most recent clinic, officers Dan Edge and Dave Johnson encouraged owners to work with their horses on the ground, using their body language to establish boundaries and asking them to move forward and backward. While practicing the commands, Edith Conyers’ mule, Roger, took a few steps back and bolted, getting loose and prancing through the arena.
“This pulling away stuff started last fall, and it only happens when I’m disciplining him,” said Conyers. “This is the second time I’ve brought him to this, and each time he gets better.”
Roger was soon retrieved, and Conyers practiced the commands again.
Each horse handled the new obstacles differently. Jeff Lainhart and Honey, experienced trail riders, navigated the stuffed monkey and hanging police tape obstacles with ease, but found a small, unassuming disc a little more challenging. Honey paused at the edge of the disc, skittering her feet. Its surface area was small and it was painted white, making it challenging for her to see beneath her. Jeff asked her to walk forward and she reared, wheeling and hopping back. He hung on and quietly asked her to try again.
“I’ll have to build one of these at home,” he said. “This is really the most important part. With my other horses, I really start with this part first. It makes a different horse … You have to remember, they can feel a gnat land on their head.”
Honey made it over the disc a little uncertainly but didn’t seem to let the experience upset her as she and Jeff rode off to find more obstacles to tackle.
Diana McKnight and Toi found the most challenging element of the clinic for them was standing still. After a few seconds, Toi shifted her weight and whinnied, as if wondering why none of these horses look familiar.
“She’s a good horse. When I first got her, she was a little bit of a bully … it had worked with the people who had her before,” said McKnight.
During the second phase of the clinic, horses and riders work through some equitation exercises to help them get used to working in close proximity to other horses and to give them better maneuverability.
Although a horse may never encounter a dormant police dummy or need to trot in pairs again in its lifetime, Rakes said that the next time the animal comes across a wadded tarp on the ground or a jigging competitor at a horse show, its experiences in the clinic may give it a base to work from.
“You can’t take the fright away, but you just try to get the horse to pay a little more attention, listen to you, and trust you that you’re going to help protect them,” Rakes said.