Equine officers enjoy new digs
Barn at WestWorld has all the creature comforts
by Barry Cohen 

SCOTTSDALE – Eight of the largest and most formidable members of Scottsdale’s law‑enforcement team are resting comfortably in new surroundings, ensuring they’re fed, fit and rested when called to duty.

Although their new home is unlikely to be featured on MTV’s “Cribs,” the equine officers of Scottsdale Police Department’s mounted patrol–Ben, Riley, J.C., Chet, Smoke, Colonel, Zeus and Rojo–are now living in air‑conditioned comfort at the unit’s new 128‑foot barn at WestWorld.

The facility features 10 stalls, indoor grooming areas, an indoor feed and tack room, five outdoor grooming bays and room to temporarily shelter animals displaced by fire, floods or other natural disasters. There is also space for the mounted officers and their supervisor of the unit, Sgt. Tom Hill, as well as a locker room.

The old barn formerly on the same site had been in use since 1985, when the mounted unit was started at the suggestion of former Scottsdale mayor Herb Drinkwater. “It was deteriorating badly, the wood was rotting and it had no insulation, so it was freezing in winter and broiling in summer,” explained Hill, calling the old facility “a big tin box.”

The new and modern digs are fitting for what is recognized as one of the finest of the approximately 900 mounted police units in the nation. Their premier status is borne out by the fact that each year police officers in training for mounted patrol from across the country visit Scottsdale to learn from the experts, making the unit the largest mounted training school in the nation. Three members –Hill and officers Gary Sheldon and Kirk Toth–are part of an elite group of instructors for the Southern Police Institute, Department of Justice Administration, at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. As such, they are called upon to train at mounted police schools across the country. Hill, Sheldon and Toth are three of the five full‑time riders in the Scottsdale unit; when needed, five reserve riders from other divisions of the department can be pressed into action.

Acknowledging that the primary thrust of the unit was PR for the city when it started, Hill said the group now does important police work. In addition to helping keep order in the busy entertainment district in downtown Scottsdale on weekends, the team has helped control crowds at the 1996 Super Bowl in Tempe, the 2001 World Series at the then Bank One Ballpark and at the FBR Open golf tournament in Scottsdale. 

“One of the big advantages of  an officer on horseback is his field of vision,” explained Hill, who joined the group in 1995.  “Up on a horse, he’s about nine feet in the air, so he can see over crowds, garages and fences. What’s more, when you’re on a horse that’s 16 hands high and weighs 1,300 pounds, people tend to listen when you ask them to move back.”

The respect garnered by the unit’s horses was demonstrated a few years ago at the FBR Open, when a man partying in the Bird’s Nest suffered a heart attack. Because the crowd was packed in so tightly, paramedics couldn’t get through to him. A member of the mounted unit was summoned and he quickly cleared a path so the paramedics could administer aid.

Although the new barn was built with City of Scottsdale funds, Hill has received outstanding financial support from private businesses, individuals and organizations to help support the mounted unit. For instance, the group’s $2,000 Australian saddles, as well as upgrades to the trucks and trailers used to transport the horses, didn’t cost the taxpayers a cent. Said Hill proudly, “We get 100 percent support from the city staff, the citizens and the businesses in Scottsdale. They recognize our value to the community, and that makes the job all the more gratifying.”

Hill regularly receives calls from persons wanting to donate a horse to the unit,  but he is highly selective. “A lot of people just want to give us their problems, and most of the horses just don’t work out,” he explained.

Hill prefers candidates for the unit be between the ages of five and 10, be at least 16 hands high and, most important, “have a brain.” Quarter horses tend to be most suited for police work, he added. “The horses in the unit need to be cool, calm and collected and not be afraid of gunfire, flares and sirens,” Hill explained. “At the same time, they need to respond when we ask them to be aggressive.”

For every 50 horses that are considered for the unit, only one will actually be brought to the barn for further evaluation. Only after a horse has undergone rigorous testing and training will it be put into service. “The horses are our partners,” emphasized Hill. “They have to protect us and know that we’re going to do everything to protect them, no matter the situation.”

Reach the reporter at barry@thedesertadvocate.com.