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At Police Academy, the Horse Play Is Serious

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Times Staff Writer

Each morning a group of San Diego police officers saddle their mounts at Gold Gulch in Balboa Park, then head for the Gaslamp Quarter downtown. And if enforcing the law is not difficult enough, these officers must work with animals that sometimes are spooked by their own shadows.

It takes a special officer to be on the city’s horse-mounted patrol, officials say. It takes an officer with enough confidence to master more than 1,400 pounds of leaping, snorting and kicking muscle.

Few officers have the confidence and courage at first, Sgt. Joe Scelso said. But after five weeks in the department’s horse academy, they ride as proudly as their Canadian counterparts.

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The academy was started more than two years ago, and during that time, Scelso has taken eight officers--most of whom had never touched a horse--and turned them into well-trained equestrians.

“It’s a very comprehensive academy,” Scelso said. “It’s geared toward people who know nothing about horses.”

The officers spend more than 40 hours in class, studying everything from the horse’s anatomy to its personality. They also learn how to care for the animals. But the real “fun” begins when the officers plop down on the saddle for the first of more than 200 hours of required riding time.

During the five-week classes, the horses and officers are tried and tested in almost every way imaginable. Police trainers frighten the animals by lighting flares and making loud noises, and sometimes it seems that all the officers can do is hold on for dear life.

Scelso said the exercises prepare the team for the many surprises they will encounter on busy city streets. For example, a man once stuck a lighted cigarette into the mouth of one horse. At San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, members of a disorderly crowd tried to dislodge an officer by pulling his horse’s tail. And recently, an angry man rammed his motorcycle into a horse because he was given a parking ticket.

The final exam for the officers comes in the form of an obstacle course called the “gauntlet.” Among other things, the course includes forcing the horses to run through a wall of black plastic while lighted firecrackers are thrown at their feet.

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Most horses are extremely afraid of black plastic because it looks like a hole, Scelso said. Some are afraid to step on manhole covers, and others are even afraid of trash cans.

If an officer expects to graduate, he must learn to control the horse in any situation. The officer must respect the horse’s size and strength while making the horse respect him.

“We don’t classify them as expert riders (when they graduate),” Scelso said. “But they have as much training as a person who has paid for it for two years. This is a pretty specialized area of training.”

Officials say at least 100 cities use horse-mounted officers to supplement their police departments, but not all operate their own academies. San Diego trains its own officers because private trainers know nothing of what police need from a horse, Scelso said.

Not only is the city’s horse patrol growing, but the department also is training horse-mounted officers from other states. Four Scottsdale, Ariz., police officers and a state park ranger were enrolled in the last class.

Scelso said he believes San Diego has an excellent program and that other police departments in the Southwest are taking notice.

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Before a San Diego officer is considered for the patrol, Scelso said, he must have at least three years’ experience in the department and an excellent record. Only four San Diego officers were chosen from the 36 interviewed for the most recent class at the academy.

“What we need are well-rounded police officers,” he said. “We don’t need cowboys. They must have a good working rapport with the horses.”

Scelso said he tells the officers they should not get emotionally attached to the animals, but should think of them as equipment.

“Horses aren’t pets,” he said. “They don’t behave like dogs do, but they do get to know you.”

Officer Tim Hall, a five-year police veteran who rides a horse named Clyde, said that although it would be easy to get attached to his horse, he has not done so.

“I don’t think I want to become emotionally attached,” Hall said. “I have to take him into dangerous situations.”

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When asked if Clyde and other horses are as dumb as Scelso said they are, Hall smiled and said, “I wouldn’t consider them to be the most intelligent animals I have ever run across. But then, I wouldn’t want them to be too smart. If you had a 1,400-pound smart animal, it wouldn’t let you ride it.”

Hall said he joined the patrol because he enjoys police work and he wanted another challenge within the department. He said he has always been interested in animals, but his interest had nothing to do with his decision to join the patrol.

“It’s a very big-visibility position on the department,” he said. “We are seen and in the public eye probably more than any other group.”

Officer Laurie Curran Hubbs said she feels so strongly about the patrol that she sacrificed a $100-a-month promotion for the privilege of riding a horse.

Hubbs said she was promoted from officer to agent in February, but she gave up the promotion when she was accepted into the academy. There are no positions for agents on the patrol, she said.

Hubbs said that although she has owned horses for 10 years, she was not fully prepared for the academy challenge.

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“Even as an experienced rider, it was not too easy,” she said. “I expected it to be tiring and exhausting, and it proved me right.”

The horses, too, are chosen for their special qualities, and although a horse may be good for riding trails, it may not be good for riding in crowds or downtown traffic.

“When we look for a horse, the primary thing we look for is mentality . . . the mind of the animal,” Scelso said. “We don’t look for pretty horses, but well-put-together horses.”

Despite the horses’ sometimes unpredictable behavior, they can be an officer’s best friend. Before the city bought the horses, several officers spent many hours patrolling the canyons of Balboa Park, Scelso said. Men on horseback now search the same ground in a fraction of the time.

Horse-mounted officers are the best way to patrol crowds and beaches, he said. They can also chase a person through places a car cannot go. And the eyes of an officer on horseback are about eight feet off the ground, so he can see things that officers on foot cannot see.

One of the nicest benefits is the attraction the public has for the horses. The horses really improve public relations, Scelso said.

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Residents are “pretty much thrilled,” he said. “We get very few negative comments.”

Most negative comments, Scelso said, have come from people who have found horse manure on sidewalks. Although officers are instructed to use their “shiny boots” to remove manure, the officers do not always see the droppings, he said.

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