SELECTION
OF SAN JOSE
MOUNTED UNIT HORSES
In 1986 when the San Jose Police Mounted Unit started looking for
suitable mounts for their officers to ride, they set down certain
qualifications for their horses. First was the breed, American
Quarter Horse, for its quiet pleasant disposition. Second was
gender, gelding. Third was the height, a minimum of 15.2
hands. Finally was the color, chestnut or sorrel.
Essentially all of these considerations had to do with uniformity and
consistency, if the officers were all going to wear the same uniform
and look alike, naturally the horses were expected to do the
same. The underlying factor had to do with ultimately the unit
was going to evolve into a crowd control unit, and a well trained
officer and mount is equal to ten foot officers in a crowd
control situation. Over the year’s modern mounted unit policing
techniques had discovered that mob psychology in a critical situation
showed the unique horse in a line would attract the most attention from
an unruly crowd. Needless to say, this was a difficult task for
the original San Jose Mounted Unit Officers to accomplish with all
these standards to consider and remain within a very limited
budget. For those in the horse world, no matter what their
discipline, be it English, Western, or Dressage, the price of a horse
can be overwhelming. Finally, the training of the horse was to be
considered. All horses can walk, trot, canter, learn to back,
side pass, stop, remain still while mounting and dis-mounting, but they
must also be exposed to anything that a police officer will see during
the course of their duties. Traffic, construction sites, loud
music, night time patrol, firecrackers, smoke, fires, parades, marching
bands, helicopters, sirens, fire trucks, large crowds, objects thrown
at them, flags, any unexpected situation that a police officer may
become involved in. Quite a task for docile animal that thinks
about only two things, when can I eat and when is something to going
try and eat me! On top of all this, the horse, like the officer
must be an “Ambassador of Goodwill”, and leave a positive impact for
the citizens it serves and not only a representative of the San Jose
Police Department in general, but of the Mounted Unit in particular.
During the evolution of the San Jose Police Mounted Unit, training for
horses changed along with the selection of horses suitable for police
work. Not all of the horses were purchased by the mounted unit,
some were donated by citizens of our community, and the process of
staying with the original standards of Quarter Horse began to
change. The unit recognized that other breeds of horses can also
be adapted to police work if they have the mind and personality to
conform to the training standards of the unit. However, the other
standards set forth remained in effect with regards to color, height
and gender of the horse. Currently the San Jose Police Mounted
Unit has several breeds within the unit; thoroughbreds, warmbloods,
Tennessee walkers, standardbreds, percherons, suffox punch,
Morgans. The only breed not to be considered by the unit was the
Arabian. This is not to say that it is not a fine horse, but the
Arabian is extremely intelligent and highly temperamental.
During the twenty year existence of the San Jose Police Mounted Unit,
the horses and riders have accomplished many policing tasks and
received numerous awards and accommodations and have been recognized
nationwide as one of the finest police mounted units. One of the
San Jose Police Mounted Units most note worthy accomplishments has to
be its success at the Grand National Rodeo at the San Francisco Cow
Palace. For eleven of the last thirteen years the San Jose Police
Mounted Unit has taken First Place in the Professional Color Guard
Competion and during the 2003 and 2004 competions they won Best Overall
out of all the First Place Winners in each division. This is an
amazing accomplishment considering they are not only judged in the most
difficult of divisions, The Professional category, they are held to a
much higher standard in the presentation of rider, tack and horse than
the other divisions. Without a doubt the citizens of San
Jose should be extremely proud of their San Jose Police Horses and all
of the riders who have participated and those who have assisted the
unit to achieve this success. So how does a San Jose Police Horse
become a Grand National Champion? There must be four identical
horses for the competion. They must be similar in all physical
ways, height and color. During the judging they must remain calm
and perform whatever movements the judges require. Some of the
past champions have been black in color, but currently the four
selected horses are “bay” in color, in other words, brown (chestnut or
sorrel) with four black points, the tail, mane, lower legs and rims of
the ears.
|
 |
Spartan
| Name of Mount |
Status |
|
|
| Ace |
Left |
| Bandit |
Current |
| Beaumont |
Current |
| Big
Al |
Current |
| Blaine |
Left |
Blaze
|
Current
|
| Bold |
Current |
| Boomer |
Left |
| Bud |
Left |
| Cal |
Current |
| Cash |
Current |
| Citation |
Died |
| Dakar |
Died |
| Dustor |
Left |
| Exlipse |
Left |
| Hamlet |
Current |
Hemly
|
Current
|
| JJ |
Current |
| Joe
Mac |
Left |
| Lucky |
Left |
| Magoo |
Died |
| Max |
Died |
| New
Bob |
Current |
| Old
Bob |
Died |
Red
|
Current
|
| Ricardo |
Retired |
| Ricky |
Left |
| Rocky |
Current |
| Scotty |
Left |
| Shadow |
Current |
| Spartan |
Current |
| Tim |
Left |
| Titan |
Current |
| Tommy |
Left |
| Willie |
Current |
Willy
|
Current |
|
