Spartan & James Cooper on patrol in San Jose, CA

I asked James to tell me a little bit about what he and Spartan (Sparky) do in and around the city of San Jose. Here is his reply:

"We are a full time mounted unit for a city of just under 1 million people. Our duties include patrol and law enforcement in the downtown area and large city parks, as well as parades, color guards, city ceremonies, care and maintenance of the stable facility and horses, crowd control and about 300 school and civic presentations per year. We are partnered with our horses that all belong to the city. The officers have to start in uniformed patrol and must be on the department for a minimum of three years before they can apply to the unit. The application process includes testing of police department policies and procedures and an off the cuff presentation for the testing board. The officers must also pass a physical agility course which includes bucking hay and mounting the tallest horse we have."

"We use several breeds of horses and Spartan is the only Suffolk Punch that we have. I don't know of any others being used as police mounts. We have had him for over two years now, but we just started training him as a mount in the past 6 months, as he was quite young when we got him. He is now 7 years old, as far as we know."

"He is a very friendly horse and seems very willing to learn. He is a fun ride in the arena, and seems to be getting along well in the downtown area. Downtown our horses are exposed to busses, traffic, sirens, trains, dogs and lots of people. Spartan has been doing very well with all of his exposure. He is a slow mover, at the walk, which is good for police work, and can be legged up to a very smooth trot. I have not cantered him on the street, but in the arena, he is a very fun ride. When walking with the other horses he takes a bit of leg as he doesn't mind being left behind. At this time he has no separation issues...another strong point for a police horse, as we are often required to work alone. I'm still not sure that Spartan understands that he is a police horse yet, and he has not been used in actual crowd control, being that he is still in his training period. But he does seem to be fitting in quite well."

Contact Information:

Postal address:
Mary Margaret M. Read, 4240 Goehring Rd., Ledbetter, TX 78946-5004

Electronic mail:
Click here to send an email to MM Read.

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