Our horses are stabled at Ellington Agricultural Center, located at 400 Hogan Road, Nashville, TN 37220.
No. We are a full time Mounted Patrol Unit, which cares for our own horses on a daily basis. Our officers take pride in caring for the horses each day. We do encourage people to come by and visit the horses anytime the Ellington Agricultural Center is open.
The horses are acquired through both donation and purchase. More information is available on our standards page.
Find out more about our standards for acquiring a new horse.
We work many different events throughout the city every year. In doing these events we ensure the horses receive adequate time to rest by trading out officers and horses for different events. If a horse has worked several events in the same week and needs to rest we have alternate horses to utilize so our primary assigned horses can rest as needed.
Yes, each officer partners with a specific horse that he or she is responsible for riding and training with on a regular basis. However, all the horses and riders are trained the same so any officer can ride any horse available if their primary horse is unavailable for any reason. We have alternate horses we utilize when needed.
Those are reflectors. The Horse Mounted Patrol Unit rides quite frequently at night time and this is just an added feature for us to been seen at night. You will also find reflectors on the horse’s breast collar as well.
We only ride English saddles. Our saddles are made by Steele Saddle Co. in Ashland City, Tennessee.
No, our horses are considered “barefoot” but wear boots to protect their feet and provide traction, anytime they are patrolling.