The Calhoun chronicle. [volume] (Grantsville, W. Va.) 1883-1984, 1909-06-01
$500 A YEAR IN ADVANCE.
MAKING POLICEMEN OF HORSES
BY Edwin Eme rsOn

/ or course every horse selected for pur-
chase must be sound in wind and limb,
/ and preferably young-that is, not old
er than six years. The average price
paid for such horses is 1910 apiece.
The price is fixed by the Police Com
missioners in the form of open bids.
Generally the animals are supplied by
some large horse-mart. They are Sc
lected by purchasing board of three
and are taken on thirty days proba-
ton.
The probation period of thirty days
covers the training period, after which
be either returned to the horse-mart
be enther returned to the horse-mart
as unacceptable or turned into the
Traffic Squad or Mounted Park Police
as horses fit and ready for police duty.
Fit for police duty" means that the
horse must be broken to the saddle,
and to go in single and double harness
i'm case of emergency service. All
that is required of first class saddle
horse is required of a police horse.
This means that a horse must be well
bitted, must be bride wise and leg
wise In other words, it must respond
at once to any tug on the bit, to pres
sure from the reins or from the riders
legs. 1t must be ready at call to walk
stop, side, back, trot, canter, gallop,
or run, and must know how to traverse
or change it's lead while galloping.
Then it must know how to stand alone
without it's rider and how to handle
| crowds by pushing or backing into
them without harming them. Further
more it must know how to catch up
with runaway horses.
All these things can be taught only
through incessant practice and by the
exercise of constant patience and per-
| severance. On the police horse-train-
ing farm these are the only methods
in vogue.
There, under the supervision of Mr..
Stanton, are five horse-trainers who,
together with as many hostlers, attend
to nothing else but the education OF
new police horses. Like their chief,
these trainers are picked horsemen
who have earned their reputation as
first class riders by long experience
in the saddle as cavalrymen, mount
ed policemen or jockeys. When they
have trained horse and pronounced
be depended on as a perfect saddle
horse
Most of their lessons are taught by
kindness and unremitting patience,
coupled with firmness, followed by
sure rewards such as sugar, petting or
luscious carrots. Great pains are taken
by them in the matter of properly
biting horse, for on that depend such
necessary acts as stopping and back
ing. A horse that has not been prop
erly trained to the bit when the
Teins are drawn taut, instead Of arch
ing it's neck or backing, as it should,
Will rear and sometimes toppIe over.
This Is not so much because its mouth
is tender as because the muscles OF
its neck have not been rendered suf-
ficiently supple by constant practice to
enable it to arch its neck
To make things easier for both rider
and mount the New York policemen,
unlike the cavalry, use double bits-a
linked snafIle bit for light refining, and
a curb bit with chin chain for sudden
stops or backing.
Once a horse has been taught to bear
a saddle and afterward a rider. and
wise and leg wise, by riding him
around and around over course laid
out in a figure eight, so as to get him
used to sudden swerving from right to
left, and vice versa. Jumping over
bitches and hurdles, first riderless, and
then with different riders, comes after
this
The final lessons, toward the close Of
the month, consist in chasing runaway
horses. For this purpose the police
training farm keeps a special trick
hOrse-a little gray mare named Miss
Dulfy-whO knows just how TO run
away with an empty cart Gathering
behind her. and also knows how to
let herself be overtaken and brought
to a halt.
After a green horse has gone through
this performance about a dozen times,
he knows just what is expected of him,
and ever after will prick up his ears at
the sound of galloDing hoofs, ready at
his riders call to start instantly in
full pursuit
BY the time a horse has learned all
these things his trainers have also
had abundant opportunity to learn
whether he is a good horse or not, and
whether he will do for the job. If not
back he goes to- the horse market. The
dealer does not get his money. but in
stead Of that he gets a very we'll
trained saddle horse in place Of a raw,
unbrOkeu colt
I'm fact, it is safe to say that the
horse bought for three hundred ana
ten dollars by Mr.. Stanton, by the
time he turns i'm for service in the
mounted squad is worth just about
twice as much Thus. stated I'm terms
Of profit and loss. we get a much bet
ter idea just what Mr. Shanton's work
is worth to the city Of New Yorl, I'm
money But it is worth much more
than that. for Mr. Stanton has provid-
ed the city of New York with the
best mounted police force I'm the world.
From Harper's Weekly
Pomegranato Plentiful.
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