Mounting A Comeback

"It doesn't matter if you're in Saskatchewan or downtown L.A." Mr. McClelland says, grinning. "You've got to teach them to suck it all in." Spook, an 11-year-old quarter horse who has spent most of his life herding cattle on the Saskatchewan plains, is preparing for a career change for which he'll need steel nerves: fighting crime in the United States. After decades of being viewed as a quaint 19th-century throwback, horses are increasingly being seen by police departments across the U.S. as valuable public relations and crowd-control tools. In cities like Reno, Las Vegas and Honolulu, mounted units have been spared despite budget cuts that threatened their existence. New York is doubling the size of its mounted patrol, which will have 160 horses by the year 2009. And across the country, the heads of mounted units say their advice is being sought by officers in other cities who want to add horses to their arsenal. To meet the demand, Canadian farmers are shipping horses from quiet ranches to the mean streets of North America. Police horses now patrolling in cities such as Baltimore, Md., Portland, Ore., and Santa Monica, Calif., got their start herding cattle near Maidstone, Sask., a town of 1,000 people near the Alberta border. Horses are also patrolling Canadian streets: Some of the horses calming drunk revellers in Toronto's club district got their start hauling plows and buggies for Mennonite families. Others patrolling Calgary and Vancouver used to have rodeo careers. It's a huge leap from the plains of Saskatchewan to the throngs of an anti-war protest, however. Most horses don't take naturally to noise or people. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070827.wlhorse27/BNStory/lifeMain/home [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on August 29, 2007]

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