The Officers and Horses

Command

Captain Rick Reilly is in charge of the Community Police Division. The Mounted Unit is part of the division.

The Mounted Unit currently has three assigned officers.

Sergeant Scott Fuller is in charge of the unit and co-ordinates all of the unit's activities and demonstrations. He oversees all operations of the unit.

Officer Scott Tardiff has been with the unit since April of 2002. He was assigned as an alternate rider and then permanently assigned to the unit on December of 2002. His mount is Shorty who still patrols the City of Manchester on a daily basis.

Officer Marc Lachance is the newest member in the unit, assigned in November 2006. Officer Lachance comes to the unit with 14 years law enforcement experience—7 years as a K-9 handler. He takes over responsibility for his mount, Valor.

And we currently have two Steeds.

"Shorty" is a Canadian gelding and has a deep chocolate coat. Shorty's Mexican Roadhouse Restaurant in Manchester, New Hampshire donated monies to the purchase of Shorty, hence the name. His partner "Amigo" was also a Canadian Warmblood, but Amigo was sold in the summer of 2004 because he was not entirely suited for police work.

"Valor" joined us in December of 2004. We expect him to be a smart partner for Shorty. Merchant's Automotive Group in Hooksett, New Hampshire made a generous donation towards the purchase of Valor.

TRAINING
Training is the cornerstone of every special police detail, and a Mounted Unit is no exception. The basic training for the unit is a 40-hour course, and it begins with a review of equitation, horse psychology, horse care and anatomy. As the horse and rider improve as a team they progress to exercises in crowd control tactics, squad formations, self defense, and officer safety. The Mounted Unit often trains with the following agencies: Dover, New Hampshire Mounted Unit, The Boston Park Rangers, The Boston Mounted Unit, and the Providence Rhode Island Mounted Unit.

A fascinating element of the school is the desensitization training. There the horse and rider team are taught to focus on critical tasks in spite of distractions such as rowdy pedestrians, smoke, flashing lights, sirens, firecrackers and shots being fired.

Even for successful horse and rider teams who graduate from this training and go on to gain experience working in law enforcement situations, training is never over. In addition to regular personal training in equitation, there is a monthly day of group training to work on specific law enforcement situations. This could be as widely varied as training close to a helicopter deploying Special Response Team officers, or having the horses experience working alongside officers on motorcycles. Mounted Mutual Aid training consists of regular sessions with mounted units from other law enforcement agencies, and periodic advanced classes.

The areas of training are:

1. Equitation & riding-school work.
Horses must be well schooled in all aspects of basic equitation and responsive to the rider's aids and commands. The horses learn basic dressage movements in the same way as competition horses. These movements are incorporated into everyday patrols when the horses are on duty.

2. Nuisance training, arrest procedure and public-order work.
Nuisance work is the term used to describe the training done to prepare the horse for the kind of hazards likely to be encountered on duty. Police Horses are trained to work in conditions most horses would not tolerate, conditions that could have loud noises (Crowds, Guns, Marching Bands, Whistles, Vehicles), obstacles (steel grates on city streets, barricades, Road flares, balloons), and possibly even items thrown at them. Arrest procedure is done to prepare the horse for dealing with prisoners and enabling the rider to arrest someone without dismounting. Public order work prepares the horse for noisy or violent crowds of people.

3. Roadwork.
Horses must be able to work in heavy traffic and be comfortable working in a city-center environment in close proximity to buses, large trucks etc. Again, the horse must tolerate obstacles such as steel grates on city streets, barricades, road flares, balloons, flags or banners waving, etc. Initially, young horses patrol alongside an older, more experienced horse until such time as they have the confidence and maturity to work in traffic on their own.

Officer Tardiff and Officer Lachance do a lot of the horses' training on their own during the day. They also visit The Singer Residence. Pam Singer helps with a certain issue or dilemma that they may have a hard time working through. She donates her time and her riding facility to the Mounted Unit. She has been training horses for years. Fern Grenier, another local horse trainer, helps the unit from time to time, at no charge as well.

Tom Schools does the shoeing for the horses and our Vet is Mark Anderson who is from New Boston, NH. The police department pays for shoeing and any Vet bills.