COIMBATORE: With five young race horses brought in from Chennai, the Coimbatore Police revived the mounted horse unit after almost 10 years. The horses, brought free-of-cost from a riding club in Chennai, would be used for patrolling in crowded areas.
A sub-inspector, 10 police constables and four caretakers make up the mounted horse unit, which was defunct since 2006 after the demise of 10 horses due to illness or old age. An amount of `450 per day was allotted for each horse, said officials. The official was given one-month training in Chennai to get accustomed with horses. The horses would be trained on a daily basis here, said M Sundaram, Special Sub-Inspector, who attended the training session.
Since the horses were comfortable walking on sand, they will be trained to walk on the tar roads here, the official said. Though training was given for the horses to walk (6.4 km per hour), trot (25 km per hour), canter (45-55 km per hour) and gallop (up to 90 km per hour), the horses would be made to walk while patrolling.
Stating that there was inadequate space in the city for the horses to gallop, Sundaram said the horses would be made to practice till canter in the riding school on a daily basis. “The horse patrolling would start within 10 days time,” he said.