Police horse Arnold takes to Albany for training

You might have noticed one of WA Police’s newest members patrolling the streets of Albany in his training hooves over the weekend.

Police horse Arnold got a taste of what it takes to be a member of WA Police’s mounted section by taking to the streets of Albany.

His partner, Sen. Const. Cathy Hill, said it was great way of easing him into the big smoke.

“We thought just to introduce him to traffic, people and noisy areas, we would take him to Albany,” Sen. Const. Hill said. “If we can, we try to get them out and about in regional cities before they go into Perth city.”

To make the process easier for Sen. Const. Hill and the five-year-old Percheron, the pair was accompanied by experienced police horse Jethro and Sen. Const. Sarah Price.

Arnold could serve with the mounted section for the next 10 years.

As the officers can tell you, life in the mounted section has its challenges. On any given day, Arnold could find himself involved in a search for a missing person, patrolling suburbs or even getting called in to help police quell a riot.

“We’re sort of the high-visibility unit,” Sen. Const. Hill said.

“We can see a lot from where we are as well.

“We can see over fences, we see a lot of people on push bikes and stuff that police in cars can’t see.

“People tend to come and talk to us as well and they’ll say, ‘Oh, we’ve had a problem around the corner or we’ve had a problem with this or that’, where people don’t usually go and approach the police to have a chat.”