I was in the UK a couple of years back and got to see a European Cup match between Arsenal and PSV Eindhoven (a Dutch team) where the police I’m sure were expecting the potential for riot. The site was crazy coming up out of the Tube. There were a bunch of police out in riot gear with the military looking riot trucks parked along the edge. And there were also mounted police in gear and the horses had riot gear on as well. The thing that was interesting that almost all the crowd control was being done by the mounted units. So, the chief that was in command of that situation obviously had the choice to use all of those other foot cops and riot trucks to do crowd control because they were just there standing at the ready, but chose to only use the mounted police. So, there has to be something to the massive advantage to mounted patrols. (To be fair the foot police were in charge of the main area where the Dutch fans entered, but that was mostly to ring the area to the English and Dutch fans wouldn’t mix.)
The other thing I’ve heard when talking to police about mounted patrols is that there seems to be “something” between horses and humans where that most trained horses will not intentionally hurt a human, and most humans won’t intentionally hurt a horse. So, they are like big pacifiers in a situation that might casue a grumbly person to think twice about their actions as opposed to just facing down against a regular police officer.
I once saw a crowd get out of control on the Mall here in DC. The mounted police appeared, pulled out their samurai swords and began mowing people down. It was cool. Heads everywhere. The police shooting people one by one with pistols and blasting away with shotguns just did not look as romantic. If only I had lived to tell about it.
You don’t think the fact that a police horse is a big, powerful animal might have anything to do with the reluctance of bald apes to go one-on-one with such a creature?
My father was a cavalryman, albeit in the Ohio National Guard, Cleveland Black Horse Troop, in the late 1920s and early 1930s. His saber instructors relied on their experience in Homestead Strike of 1892 and the Pullman Strike in 1894 and taught use of the saber against crowds and mobs. They cautioned their troops against cutting off their own horses’ ears when striking to the left side. The old man reported that in a live fire pistol exercise he watched a soldier accidentally kill his own horse with a pistol shot to the head the head.
On the Sunday before Columbus Day my wife and I were on Chelsea Pier in New York City. A troop of mounted NYPD is stabled in the old Baltimore and Ohio Railroad building there. Apparently there was some sort of parade (Latino Pride?). We caught the parade mounted detachment returning to the stables. Column of fours at a good round trot. Good looking animals, mostly bays, compact, 15 to 16 hands. Very impressive. Very professional.
I saw camera footage of mounted police dispersing a crowd of English football fans rioting (from a camera mounted on an officer’s helmet) Very effective, the height, size and speed of approach was quite intimidating looking.
A little more detail on bay color. The body of a bay is brown , ranging from lighter golden to deep, almost black mahogany, with black points- legs, muzzle, mane and tail. It is my favorite color on a horse.
