New horse recruit welcomed into ranks of Calgary Police Service

There’s a new horse in town.

The Calgary Police Service officially welcomed in the newest recruit to the Mounted Unit on Wednesday, giving a badge to six-year-old Percheron Standardbred cross Anzio.

Anzio becomes the fifth member of the unit, filling one vacant role after two horses were retired in the last year.

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The horses are usually seen during Stampede, including taking part in the Stampede Parade and occasionally trotting around the grounds, but have also been seeing increased action lately.

In addition to being some of the most eye-catching members of the police, they do serve a valuable purpose.

“These horses can cover, as you can imagine, quite a bit more territory than people on foot,” said Insp. Gerry Francois, commander of the CPS Support Section. “So, if we’re doing searches for lost people they can cover quite a bit of ground. They can go through some pretty rough terrain. They’ve really been a tremendous resource to us.”

With the rise in protests, now happening almost weekly as the pandemic continues, police have been saddling up on the horses to help with crowd control.

“A horse is worth ten people when you’re trying to manage a crowd and trying to prevent two opposing sides perhaps from coming together. Our plan is to expand,” added Francois.

The name Anzio is significant as well, coming on the eve of Remembrance Day. He is named after the Battle of Anzio, which happened during the Italian campaign in the Second World War. The other horses in the unit are named Vimy, Ortona, Dieppe and Normandy as it is tradition to name the horses after famous battles fought by Canadian soldiers.

The head trainer of the mounted unit said Anzio is an eager officer and was chosen for his attitude.

PSH Anzio does an excellent job of searching through heavy brush, riverbanks and wooded areas for missing people and evidence – something our Mounted Unit does often. Officers on horseback can cover more than 60 kilometers of search area in each shift!

— Calgary Police (@CalgaryPolice) November 10, 2021

“There is a tremendous amount of confidence-building, desensitization training for them to get them comfortable in scenes that may turn chaotic,” said Robin Koltusky, equine training and facilities coordinator with the Calgary Police Service Mounted Unit. “They already come here with a brave type temperament with them. We like to choose the ones that are typical warhorse type mentalities. They just thrive on having a job and having a task and being challenged.”

“He’s demonstrated a very strong work ethic and a love for serving the community,” said Chief Constable Mark Neufeld. “They say that in the mornings when they go out, he’s the first one to the gate wanting to make sure he’s chosen to go out for the day’s activities.”

The ceremonial purpose of the horses was also easy to see during the event, as people living nearby came out of their homes to watch and get a closer glimpse at the towering horses. In fact, one of them was a mounted officer decades ago, serving with the Toronto police.

He showed Chief Neufeld a photo of him on his horseback in the 1970s and gave a bit of perspective on what it’s like to serve in this unique role.

“The training, the camaraderie, working with the animals. Just an amazing, amazing experience for me,” said Jim Forde. “I wanted to be here today because it takes me back many, many years to those joyous days. I’ve had many, but that, in particular, is what stayed with me my entire police career.”

Forde said in his day, the purpose of the mounted unit was much of the same and focused on crowd control. He said the horses have an impressive effect on calming people down, telling a story about monitoring soccer games in Toronto.

“Then they didn’t like a call, they’d get a little riotous shall we say. So the best thing to do was just to walk along the fence line where the people are and just walk slowly, and they’d turn around and there’s this monster nose breathing across their shoulder. It was like the parting of the waters, they just said ‘oh, a horse!’ and everything was wonderful again,” said Forde. “It was just so amazing to see what these animals are capable of doing, I just can’t speak highly enough for them.”

Forde said he had two horses in his time. The first was, in his words, “crazy” in demeanour while the other was a “general” and commanded respect. Despite the massive size, Forde said people loved to take pictures with the horses and it was always a great time to go out.

Neufeld added any recruit can be eligible to become an officer with the mounted unit, regardless of prior experience with horses, and he sees a place for the animals through the future.

“To see the horses, to see our members in cowboy hats, I think that’s a bit of the persona, is it not?” said Neufeld. “But then to understand what else those horses can do, other than just be horses. These are great officers.”