Police horses: What really happens behind the scenes
POLICE horses have become a common feature on Bulawayo’s roads as police conduct patrols to enforce lockdown regulations.
The horses are usually an attraction during national events such as official opening of Parliament, Independence Day and Heroes’ Day celebrations, drawing huge crowds through their displays on such occasions.
During the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF), the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) exhibition stand is undoubtedly a crowd puller, as people, especially children, jostle to catch a ride on horseback.
Despite people’s fascination with police horses, what really happens behind the scenes in terms of their day-to-day upkeep and training remains a mystery to the generality of the public.
Chronicle visited the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) Bulawayo Provincial Mounted Unit stables to have an insight into how the training of horses is conducted, their behaviour and traits.
The ZRP has 20 horses in Bulawayo and the oldest one is called Regimental Horse (RH) Zanzibar. Although its exact age is not known, it is believed to be nearly 30, with 23 years of service in the police force and now due for retirement.
The youngest is one year old and it is yet to be named. There is another one named after one of the country’s heroines of the First Chimurenga/Umvukela, Gogo Nehanda. However, she is in foal (pregnant) hence she is currently not active and therefore spared from policing duties.
All the horses at the stable have names and force numbers. The naming of the horses is done in an alphabetical order and the ZRP Commandant Depot at the Police General Headquarters in Harare is the one in charge of the naming process.
Some of the notable names of the horses at the ZRP mounted unit in Bulawayo are Fundani, Juluka, Juru, Kariba and Peter. Each time, a filly or foal is born, they are given names from a pool of names.
When a horse is born, it is called a filly foal if it is female and a male uncastrated under four years is called a colt. However, after four years when that colt remains uncastrated it becomes a stallion. If it is castrated after four years it is a gelding.
At ZRP Bulawayo Mounted Unit, there are six mares, 13 geldings and a colt.
The acting officer in charge of ZRP Bulawayo mounted unit, Assistant Inspector Onias Sibanda said horses are restless animals hence it is important whenever training them to ensure that they are not violent.
A horse gets its initial training at birth but the proper police training begins at the age of four and the exercise lasts for at least three months after which they begin police duties.
“Our horses get the force number after four years during which they will start the initial police horse training for three months before they are engaged in conducting police duties. At four years, it would have received basic horse training,” said Asst Insp Sibanda.
He said the horse is trained the moment it is born so that it doesn’t become wild and that stage is called initial handling.
“The key thing in training the horse is that we don’t want it to be violent because it is a fractious animal. We do community socialisation with these horses where we will be doing pony rides in schools,” he said.
Asst Insp Sibanda said a horse has three instincts, which define how it behaves in a challenging situation: flight, fight and freeze.
“The first instinct it has upon sensing danger is flight, which simply means running away and if running away