Mounted police officer Eric Lukacs and Liam. Credit Jenny Foster
Throughout the world streets are filled with people demanding change. The pictures of flag-and-banner-waving throngs have become something like a Rorschach Test. Are the protests the first draft of a revolution that will cause irreparable damage to society, or are they a logical and necessary answer to seemingly intractable problems? After a winter of pandemic-induced discontent morphed into a spring that has been anything but silent, it seems the ground is shifting. In every state there are demonstrators and protesters and counter-protesters—all testing the levers of government and the boundaries of the First Amendment.
Amid the crowds in big and small cities there are mounted police whose horses seem attentive yet detached from the mayhem. They stand quietly, shoulder-to-shoulder with their equine compatriots, while the officers on their backs scan the crowds, looking for signs of trouble. To the average rider, such nonchalance might seem otherworldly. But it is both the norm and the prerequisite for horses in mounted patrols.
Officer Eric Lukacs of the Lancaster (PA) Bureau of Police says that getting a horse ready for these fraught situations takes time, patience and trust. “You don’t just say to the horse ‘I know you’ve never done this before, but tomorrow there’s going to be a protest…’”
He says that the horses on Lancaster’s Mounted Patrol Unit have had extensive training. “They’ve done this; they have experience and training and are prepared to stay calm in the midst of the noise and tumult.”
Start with the Right Horse
Lukacs’ partner, Liam is a 17.2 hand Clydesdale-Hackney cross from Toronto. They’ve been together for 14 years. When the Mounted Patrol Unit started in 1979, Lukacs says they accepted donated horses and trained them for the work. “Initially that worked out but as time went on, taking donated horses, we realized that people were giving you a horse because they wanted the horse to have a good home. We decided to purchase horses because you can hold people accountable versus getting a horse that might have some hidden injuries or other problems.”
He says they have been using various internet sources to find potential horses for the unit, and typically negotiate a 90-day “trial” contract to purchase the horse. “There’s no distance we won’t travel to get a good horse.”
So, what do they look for? Lukacs says that they are looking for horses that are curious, not fearful. Although there is not a minimum size requirement, bigger is better. “We look for a larger vantage point in a crowd. We want to be above all that. Larger horses allow us in a tight crowd situation to see 50 to 75 rows back in that crowd to see if there’s anything going on,” he says. “It may be a peaceful protest or concert or event and there are three or five or six people that are a problem. We can see it where an officer on the ground can only see two or three rows.”
He says they look for draft horses because they seem to have a good demeanor in crowds. “They’re very secure in themselves.”
Before Anything Else, Trust
Once they bring a new horse onto the force, Lukacs says the first job is to build trust. “We groom him, spend time with him, let him know that we’re not going to ask anything of him. The first couple of days we just spend the day grooming the horse. Groom him and let him go. Groom him and let him go. All these things take days. Then we just ride him, walking, trotting and cantering, no obstacles at first.”
After the horse has become more comfortable in his new home, and there is a level of trust, Lukacs says they begin the process of introducing the horse to some of the distractions the team might encounter on the job. “We use humane things to throw over their heads to get them used to it,” he says. Things like nerf footballs and soccer balls. “We bring in volunteers that wave signs and yell and approach the horses and go up to their faces. So, we can teach the horses to stand.”
But unruly crowds rarely toss nerf balls, and they’re not made up of actors waving signs. So the training often gets noisy. “We have various things,” Lukacs says, “fireworks, streamers, simple obstacles. Exposing your horse over and over, with encouragement and reassuring them that it’s not dangerous helps get them through things.” And they try to replicate what the horse might encounter on the street. “We bought a baby pool and filled it with plastic bottles and empty beer cans and made the horses walk through it. It crunches,” he says. “When they are on the street at a protest or an event, people typically throw stuff on the ground and we have to walk through that.”
He says they also have smoke grenades and the horses walk through the smoke. And CS gas—tear gas—which Lukacs says doesn’t affect horses. When they’re on the job doing crowd control, the horses do have face shields to protect them. Lukacs says that during recent events some of the people in the crowd did throw things at them.
Training is constant—even when they’re just riding the horses in the park. Inevitably they’ll encounter crowds, screaming kids, traffic noises. The horse and rider teams are set, and that reinforces the trust that is built up over time.
Liam is Lukacs’ horse. “When I have a day off, Liam has a day off. When I’m on vacation, he’s on vacation.”
From Patrol Car to Horseback
Lukacs says his first job with the Lancaster Bureau of Police was in a patrol car. He had never even touched a horse when Mike Corso, the lead instructor in the Mounted Patrol Unit approached him and invited him to try out. “I remember telling him ‘I think you’ve got the wrong person.’” But Corso persisted. “If you’re open minded,” he told Lukacs, “I can teach anybody how to ride. But I can’t teach them how to talk to people. Once you’re on this horse, people are going to want to talk to you; and if you’re not the type of officer who wants to interact with people, then you should not be on the back of this horse.”
Lukacs says that Corso wanted to ensure the Mounted Patrol would maintain high standards of interacting with the public and caring for the horses in the four-person unit. He said he went through six weeks of riding lessons one on one with Corso before he and his partner Liam went on patrol.
His first shift on Mounted Patrol in Lancaster was a revelation. “People saw us in a different light, and it was really nice.” He recalled what it had been like when he was in a patrol car. “I worked nights, from seven to seven, usually when the worst stuff happens. People are victimized and they’re having the worst day of their lives.” But walking the streets with Liam was a completely different game. “When I got on the horse and went on patrol, people would wave and come over, ask the horse’s name. It was overwhelming to realize that they’re not coming with problems. They’re having a good day.”
He says he told Corso that he felt like the ice cream man. They don’t discourage people from approaching the horses, and Lukacs really enjoys engaging people in conversations. “We have never had any policy that keeps people from touching our horses. They should just ask us first. We don’t turn down kids, unless we’re in the middle of a situation,” he says. “People love animals. People in Pennsylvania love animals,” he says, and that adds another layer of satisfaction to his job.
It has been a great ride for Lukacs, who graduated from Greensboro College and Millersville University. After he had been part of the Mounted Patrol Unit, he was selected to train with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Ottawa, and he graduated from the Mounted Police Instructor School at the University of North Carolina.