We are accustomed to seeing giant, docile and stoic police horses patroling the streets of big cities. But not every horse that enters the equine police academy gets a passing grade.
Such was the case for Fritz, a 16-year-old Quarter Horse mare who was sent back to her owner after failing to make the cut for the Columbus Ohio Police mounted unit.
Calling Fritz a “fantastic horse”, Columbus mounted officer and police horse trainer Sandra Silva told the Columbus Dispatch that the mare just isn’t suited to life on the job. And apparently, this failing grade is more common than you’d think. “[It’s] more common than them staying,” Silva said.
In Fritz’s case, the biggest issue was her tendency to want to gallop off at the mounting block, which she did before Silva even put her boot in the stirrup. A reputation was born. “Nobody else wanted to test ride her after that,” Silva told the news outlet.
Fritz also has too much energy for police work. In her previous job, Fritz was a competitive mounted shooting horse ‒ a high-octane sport that has such celeb fans as country singer Miranda Lambert, who competes on her own horse. Silva admitted that it was likely this sport training that created Fritz’s habit to bolt as soon as the rider was aboard ‒ a good quality in mounted shooting, not so good for police work.
The average police horse requires two to three years of training, but after trying Fritz for 18 months it was decided she would be better suited at another job and she was returned to her owner.
Interestingly, many of the Columbus police horses are donated and there is no set breed. The force has warmbloods, a Belgian draft horse and a Friesian.
“It’s not the breed of the horse, it’s the brain of the horse,” Silva said, echoing what every horse owner already knows.
Check out one of their training videos here ‒ how would YOUR horse react?:
