There is a huge difference between a 2 year old (that isn’t always really even two yet) thoroughbred racehorse that is all keyed up for the biggest race of its life and a well-trained police horse that is older, calmer, in a daily routine, and as other people have mentioned, trained to be surrounded by people making strange noises and doing odd things. Police horses were one of the ‘special plans’ that kept the annual State Street Haloween ‘Riot’ from getting out of control in 2005. Police horses were also key in quelling the ‘riots’ at Ohio State in 2000 and 2001. If you ever watch Cops Mardi Gras (check your local listings!), the mounted police did a really good job of responding to fights and thefts in the crowd because people get the hell out of the way of horses.
Do you have much experience taking road vehicles like a Vespa or motorcycle off-road? To say they would work better than an animal that is completely at home running full speed on grass and jumping or dodging foliage is ridiculous. A Vespa or motorbike are quite likely to get stuck in mud, or run into a log or obstruction that they have zero chance to get past in a reasonable amount of time. A Vespa or something would be better for chasing down a fleeing suspect in a small crowded, paved area like a crowded European city. But a place like Central Park? No way, those aren’t designed for off-road. I guess you could equip police with dirt bikes, but I’m not sure if that still puts them on par with a horse.
Also, anyone who has no equine experience is naturally going to be more comfortable on a motorized device than a horse, it’s what you’re used to.
Also a properly trained horse would never be skittish in an intense situation. Horses used to charge full speed into the enemy with guns being fired all around and screaming and shouting all over the place.
As for the overarching question as to whether or not mounted units make fiscal sense, I don’t know. I think there are a lot of intangibles that would have to be measured to judge that. . .
I think there are definite situations when a mounted police officer is the best choice, but the question is how frequent are those situations.
So you’re a protester and refuse to disburse. Are police horses trained to basically bump you into submission? How much contact can/do they make? I take it they are trained not to kick, but then I don’t know.
Any black-eyed protesters out there?
If a police horse wants you to move, you move. They just sidle into you and move you over. Your choice is to move or get moved.
A horse is a big animal. If it wants you to move you will not be able to resist being moved. You just can’t. You’re not strong enough. It’s rather amazing they listen to us little hairless apes at all.
One reason why horse patrols were revived in the late 1960’s is because protestors had developed a fondness for turning over police cars and setting them on fire. It’s a LOT harder to overturn a horse - the horse fights back, among other things.
I don’t believe police horses are trained in battles tactics like kicking, rearing, and biting on command (most of the Lippazaner horse routine is, in fact, moves originally developed for combat on horseback) but they are certainly capable of doing do. Anyone foolish enough to attack a police horse deserves to be kicked, bit, or trampled. In most, if not all, jurisdictions striking a police horse carries the same penalities as striking a human officer. I have seen video of someone punching a police horse - the horse grabbed his arm and shook him like a ragdoll, the man completely off the ground, with no apparent effort. Like I said, they’re a big, strong animal, lots stronger than a human being.
Horses are skittish by nature, but they are also very trainable and very loyal. A horse ridden daily by the same person will develop an enormous trust in its rider. A horse that is frightened will, nonetheless, obey a rider the animal knows and trusts and go into circumstances the animal would normally avoid when commanded. You can tell the horse is nervous. but they’ll do it. Combine that with the desentization training police horses undergo to accustom them to loud noises and strange events and you have an animal that can handle riot control, confrontations, and that will even continue to try to do its job when injured. The cool thing about horses is that the same horse that can face down an angry mob will be gentle and sweet with little kids that come up and pat it on the knee. With rare exception, they really are creatures that, while capable of fighting, would much prefer to be lovers.
What the others said, and what was said in the other threads. There’s two separate uses for horses - one being the Times Square single-officer presence, where it’s (a) a good mobile vantage point, (b) a very visible and reassuring presence as far as the public are concerned, © ‘cute horsie’ positive PR for the police, and (d) good everyday use of a resource which would otherwise be running around a field all day.
However, I doubt many police forces would have a horse just for these reasons - it’s a everyday benefit of have them for use in riot and crowd control situations. A line of half-a-dozen horses can create an effective barrier, when it would take many dozens of police on foot to do the same thing. It’s also a better visual barrier, which can help to calm some situations down. And it’s more effective than any other moving barrier at slowly moving a crowd. As silenus said, you don’t have much choice but get out of the way. And in generally-calm or potentially-volatile crowds, the visible presence of the mounted police can be useful.
However, there’s a limitation. All this assumes the police are not a specific target in a riot. If so, the horses are even less of a target. In a situation where the police are a (or the) target, horses are very vulnerable and cannot be used. For example, while mounted police are common sights in mainland Britain, you’ll never see them being used to tackle rioters in Northern Ireland.
I have had occasion to see the very same thing and have seen the IMP in action to chase down a couple thugs downtown Indy. I think they are more productive than the bike cops, and they just look cool!
I experienced NYPD mounted police used in a different kind of crowd control.
Some years ago, I was in Times Square for New Years. You’ve all seen it on TV. It’s an absolute sea of people, standing shoulder to shoulder. It was maybe 20 minutes to midnight, so the people were packed in really tightly. But it was a beautiful night, and the crowd was relaxed and happy. I was just chilling out enjoying the scene. When all of a sudden…
There was this GIGANTIC HORSE looming above me! I felt like he was going to kick me right in the head! I stepped back, oh yes I did. And right behind the horse came police on foot, swinging their nightsticks. I felt like I was going to get whacked really hard. So I stepped back some more. I was terrified. I soon realized that two mounted policemen and several policemen on foot had cleared an area not ten feet from where I had been standing, where a guy was lying on the ground shaking. The police picked up the guy, and as the horses cleared the way, took him out through the crowd. The clear area immediately filled in. The people around me spent a few seconds collecting themselves and debating what might have been wrong with the guy (drug overdose was the consensus, but who knows) and then went right back to being relaxed and happy.
It was a neat maneuver–almost surgical. They just came in, plucked out the man, and left. Nobody got hurt at all. And the guy on the ground got whatever medical attention he needed. I was, and still am, amazed at the skills and professionalism of those officers.
Huh? Let’s see here. Police wade into a crowd of “calm, happy, innocent” people, start swinging their nightsticks at them and make them fear they may get “whacked really hard,” and you commend their “professionalism”?
Implying the possibility that someone could get “whacked really hard” is very different to actually whacking someone. As was clear from Green Bean’s description, it was a single small effort to clear a small area quickly. Even though they were swinging nightsticks, it’s highly unlikely they’d have started cracking skulls just to get the 10-yards clearance necessary. This is where perception and appearance is very useful, and reinforces the role of mounted police, as part of the “we need you to move, so move” approach.
I am glad to hear that the horses go through such a rigorous training schedule. Teaching them to react with aggressive movements one moment and gentle care with a small child underfoot the next is probably difficult to do. But well worth the time.
Having been in deafeningly loud environments, I can tell you that the NYPD was using a brilliant tactic- purely visual cues to move people. Large horses, officers moving their arms and sticks. Their goal was to quickly reach and remove the gentleman, not to bash heads.
Lacking the ability to make themselves heard, they made themselves seen rapidly and effectively. I’m not great lover of the police, but hearing green bean’s story, it sounds to me like they did exactly the proper thing.
And, reading these posts, I have to admit that my impression when I wrote the O.P. has been changed. They’re not anacronous at all, but are used effectively in places where their bulk and agility are useful. 
Live and learn.
Not to mention that it is likely that one of the mounted policemen, high on top of his horse, who first noticed the guy having the problem. That high vantage point is useful for this.
Well, the police over there also seem to really care about their police horses, even their feelings.
After all, they recently held a drunk student in a cell overnight, and charged him with a breach of the Public Order Act for making homophobic remarks deemed likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to a police horse.
He told the police rider “your horse is gay” and then followed them down the street, repeating his comments.
But eventually, the prosecutor dropped the case, saying there was not enough evidence to proceed. (Perhaps the horse (a gelding) was too embarrased to testify?)
Cite: http://www.oxfordstudent.com/mt2005wk6/News/‘gay’_horse_jibe_lands_student_in_court
Bumped.
The Marines still teach advanced horsemanship to some Special Ops troops: https://www.marsoc.marines.mil/News/News-Article-Display/Article/513766/mountain-warfare-training-center-teaches-advanced-horsemanship/
French mounted police is never used in riot and crowd control situations. They operate almost only in parks. So they have them just for these reasons, in fact.
The Scottish police sometimes use horses to directly challenge crowds. I mean, they’re usually used for passive crowd management and observation, but there’s an example of a rather more aggressive stance. This is the 1980 Scottish Cup Final between Rangers and Celtic, a family-friendly fixture!
Notice how the pitch starts to clear when the first four horses turn up, and how they basically intimidate the rioters a few minutes later when the rest arrive.PBS’s Nature will air a documentary on the intertwined history of horses and people on Jan. 16. Looks interesting. Check local listings: https://www.pbs.org/video/equus-story-of-the-horse-efl5wr/