The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1909-05-29

mostly of Mr.. Shanton's own making
For instance, no mares or stations, are
ever chosen. All must be geldings and
all must be of uniform height, weight
and color That is, no horse under
fifteen and a half hands and under
nine hundred pounds is eligible for po-
lice service. The ideal police horse
should stand sixteen hands high, and
weigh thousand pounds. In color it
should be bay or chestnut, preferably
with black name and tail without
marks. Docked stalls or branding
are considered undesirable mutiIations.
OF 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 a 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 Tor police duty.
Fit for police duty" means that the
horse must be broken to the saddle.
| 20 in CT nd \
in case of emergency service. All
that is required of a first class saddle
horse is required Of police horse.
! This means that a horse must be we'll
| 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 its lead while galloping.
Then 1t must know how to stand alone
without its rider and how to handle"
crowds by pushing or backing into
them without harming them. Further
more. it must know how to catch up
Win runaway nOrSeS.
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
him fit to be ridden that horse may
be depended on as a perfect saddle
horse.
Most Of their lessons are taught by
kindness and unremitting patience.
coupled with frmness. 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
reins are drawn taut, instead OF arch
ing its neck or backing, as 1t should,
will rear and sometimes topple over.
This is not so much because its mouth
is tender as because the muscles OF
its neck have not been rendered SUI
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 snafle bit for light refining, and
curb bit with chin chain for sudden
stops or backing.
Once horse has been taught to bear
saddle and afterward rider, ana
to respond to the bit, he Is made bride
wise and leg wise, by riding him
around and around over course laid
out in 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 special trick
horse-a little gray mare named Miss
Duffy-who knows just how to run
away with an sempty cart Gathering
behind her, and also knows how to
let herself be overtaken and brought
to halt.