It looks like it’s not only human police officers being given LGBTQ sensitivity training. Recently the mounted unit of London, England’s Metropolitan Police Taskforce were given some extra lessons to prevent their horses from spooking at the newly-painted rainbow crossings on city streets. The new paintwork is to promote inclusion with members of the LGBTQ community; however, the horses weren’t fans, and as some videos posted online show, that could prove a danger to human and horse:
To lessen the apprehension and danger, London police chiefs took to Twitter to show how the Taskforce was preparing their animals for this newfound scare.
According to the Twitter account, “Something we hadn’t expected was that some of the horses are getting spooked by the bright colours of the Colourful Crossings project and other road markings in Central London. To enable us to ride and patrol safely we had training versions installed with help from @gevekomarkings who donated our new Bright Training crossings. We can get the horses used to them before riding them out in public.
“A misconception is that horses only see in black and white. They may not see colour the way we do, but they are not ‘colour blind.’ Therefore, the differing shades and patterns of a colourful crossing could suggest an obstacle in the road, causing a horse to shy from something that we, as humans do not see. This eliminates risk to public, motorists or distress to our horses.”
According to an article in The Daily Mail, it isn’t just horses that are having an issue with the project. There have been reports that the brightly-coloured stripes are confusing guide dogs as well. People have also taken to social media, citing the colourful stripes as triggers for a host of health issues. Those who are visually impaired or have learning disabilities, among other issues, find the crosswalks difficult to navigate. One woman posted on social media, “What about me and thousands like me? I suffered a mild brain injury seven years ago and find walking over a busy carpet difficult without falling over, but at least I could still cross the road.”
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