Feature: Life on the Force

FEATURE

Life on the force

If you’ve decided that your career path must include horses, there are many different ways to arrive at that destination. CHRISTINE ARMISHAW recently explored one road rather less travelled.

Born into a horse-loving family, Sarah Maxwell always wanted a career that involved equine workmates. First sitting on a horse at eighteen months old, her Year 10 work experience was with the mounted police and she continued to find herself drawn

to the force: “When I saw the mounted

police out and about, I knew in the pit of my stomach that it was something I wanted to do.” Certainly, if you’re lucky enough to be based in a city with an equine unit, a big, bold police horse, all decked out and matching perfectly with his counterparts, is a sight to behold.

So, now with more than 14 years’ service on the force, first as a forensic investigator, Sarah decided to make the move to the NSW Mounted Unit seven and a half years ago, where she is now a Sergeant and an Instructor.

The amazing equines that make up the squad get there through a series of tests, and must pass each stage before moving onto the next. Would-be contenders fall by the wayside, with only the calmest, most resilient, and bravest of horses making it through. Indeed, only one in ten completes the process and earns their badge as a fully qualified police horse. But what does it take to make it as a bay in blue?

Selection

Firstly, the selection process starts with the basics. “All our horses have to be black, brown or bay, and they need to be 16 hands high or bigger,” Sarah explains. The unit has been formed for almost 200 years and they like to maintain tradition, hence the unified colour scheme. But practical reasons are also at play. Having one horse in particular stand out from the others could become a safety issue for that individual.

However, she says that facial and leg markings are less of a concern. “We’ve got plenty of horses here with four white socks and a blaze. When we take them out to a protest or something similar, each horse wears matching protective demonstration gear on their faces and legs. And with that on, they all look very much like one another in a crowd.”

The equine unit takes mares and geldings, with no preference for one over the other, but some prior training is a must. “The horse needs to be broken in and have a basic level of education. We don’t start horses here. We want them to have basic walk, trot and canter, and to move off your leg a little. But we do take them quite green so long as they are over at least three years of age,” Sarah explains. “We try and purchase our horses between the ages of three and ten. But if they are not in that age range and they are an exceptional horse, we may still consider them.”

Horses joining the force come from a variety of backgrounds. “From horses that have never left the property they were bred on, to horses that have done a bit of eventing, Pony Club, or adult riding. It doesn’t really matter, what’s important is how they cope with new situations, and that they’ve got the right temperament,” Sarah tells me. “We’re always looking for suitable horses. We check online in all the normal places, and we’ve got a couple of staff here who have horse acquisition as their specific portfolio. They’re always looking.”

Meet ‘n’ greet

Finding a potential recruit is just the first step of the journey. There’s quite a process involved in getting a horse from a prospect to a fully-fledged member of the troop. According to Sarah, the required attributes are pretty standard: “When we

go out to look at them, we’re assessing things like what they’re like to be caught in the paddock, or how they react when you approach them in the box. What they’re like when you saddle them, and then how they are when the rider first hops on, all those types of things.”

Other points of interest are how they go in walk, trot and canter; if they are able to do a bit of rein-back; whether they know how to leg yield; or, if they aren’t familiar with lateral work yet, what their reaction is when they’re met with pressure from the rider’s leg. Sometimes a feedbag will be thrown on the ground to see what happens when the horse is asked to walk over it. But as Sarah points out, it doesn’t have to be a perfect response: “If the horse shies or looks at something, that’s OK. But when you ask them to go forward, do they

ABOVE: Nuisance training helps to prepare the horses and build their confidence. LEFT: Off duty troop horse Joker enjoys a cooling drink on a hot day.

On patrol at Circular Quay.

go?” Once again, it boils down to that all-important factor of temperament.

Probation

Depending on how their suitability is assessed at that first meeting, the horse will be brought back to headquarters for a three-month trial. “We don’t want to rush the horse, but rather to give them a chance to come and settle in. Even getting used to our stable complex in the city can be a big change in itself for a horse that’s come from having always lived in a paddock,” Sarah says. She elaborates on this important point: “We want to slowly progress them at a pace they can handle. All the new experiences are a big ask of any horse, like learning to walk on the road with light rail and buses flying past, road works, big construction sites. We just want to take them slowly to give them the best opportunity to succeed. With some horses we know quite quickly that they’re not suitable and, for their own welfare, we don’t want to push them, so we’ll just terminate their trial early.”

As the newbies begin to relax into their surroundings, the ridden work gets underway. “We start out getting them confident in our little indoor arena. We’re also able to use the facilities at Centennial Parkland Equestrian Centre, so we pop them on a float and take them over there to see how they cope in a different environment. From there, we start riding on some of the quieter local streets where there’s not too much traffic. If they’re coping, we can slowly progress them one step at a time, going further into the city, riding in more atmosphere, night patrols, football games and so on,” Sarah explains.

It’s around this point where, if they are handling these situations well, and they pass a vet check, the trial is completed, and the rookie placements are approved.

Police life

Education for a police horse continues along the same vein as you might expect of a sport horse. Regular schooling, developing and refining the three paces, working on the bit, rein-back, lateral work – all the fundamentals. “That all translates to having a horse that’s with you on the street, which means you have control,” Sarah says. “We also train in troop drills with up to sixteen horses at a time. We do a musical ride each year at the Sydney Royal Show. That kind of training readies

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horses and riders to work as a troop for public order assignments.”

Other interesting work in the form of nuisance training is carried out to further prepare the horses and help build their confidence. “We walk them over tarps and through waving flags, we have a bubble machine and a smoke machine, we shake maracas and bang tambourines to make noise,” Sarah says. “We always pair up our newer horses with one that’s very experienced, because they’ll take confidence from that other horse.”

The ongoing training is effectively a lifestyle, and it really does cover all the bases. “Our horses are pretty wellrounded. We do a little bit of sporting, some jumping, a bit of cross country, we go on beach rides and bush rides, so they’re really fantastic all-rounders,” she adds with a smile – and I can hear the pride in her voice as she extols the virtues of her charges.

Sarah is quick to point out that the care and well-being of the team is paramount – and this is evident in the meticulous attention to detail that is paid to each horse. “We have a full-time farrier, our horses all get frequent massages, we’ve got great vets – if the horses need it, they get it! We have a regular spelling program using paddocks all around Sydney, and every horse gets out several times a year to just go and be a horse. They actually get more holidays throughout the year than the staff!” she quips. “We love our horses, and we each have our favourites. We’re all quite attached to them.”

They say only shooting stars break the mould and, in the case of the exceptional horses that make it into the ranks of the prestigious Mounted Unit, nothing could be closer to the truth.

Leaving the stables to go on patrol.