Pressroom

Rescued horse gets new lease on life with city cops

By Kim Bell
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
05/16/2008

Clyde, the horse, and his rider, St. Louis Police Officer Christina Atwood.

ST. LOUIS -- A horse rescued by the Missouri Humane Society is the newest of the 10 geldings patrolling Forest Park as part of the St. Louis Police Department's mounted patrol.

Clyde, a 7-year-old quarter horse mix, is among the donations that the St. Louis Police Foundation announced Thursday it had made to the city police force.

The stables at Forest Park are Clyde's latest home. Abandoned as a young colt, Clyde was rescued by the Humane Society and put up for adoption. But the adoptions didn't work — he was returned twice by owners who couldn't care for him.

St. Louis police Officer Christina Atwood, 39, was paired with Clyde and has been riding him since February. Together, they patrol Forest Park.

"He's very personable, very curious," Atwood said. "I think he has great potential. Like any of the horses here, it's a work in progress."

Clyde is the youngest of the department's 10 horses. The oldest is 21.

"With age," she said, "they get calm and better through repetition."

The St. Louis Police Foundation was established last July to raise money to supplement the city police department's regular budget with private contributions.

On Thursday, the Foundation announced donations totalling $250,000 to the department. Clyde is one of two new horses for the Mounted Patrol Unit.

"We're just trying to provide additional support that maybe the department can't afford," said Doug Albrecht, president of the Foundation.

The other donations include:

— Money to buy lighter bulletproof vests. The first year, several hundred of the lighter weight vests will be distributed. By the end of the third year, the goal is to have this new type of vest for every officer on the department. The cost difference between the lighter weight vests and the old version is about $200 per vest. The Foundation is picking up the difference.

— Paying $35,000 to cover the cost of the annual St. Louis Police Memorial Breakfast. The breakfast usually draws about 1,500 people.

— Building a new fence and redoing the kennel gates at the city police department's canine facility in north St. Louis County. The current fence is about 30 years old. Parts of it are rusted out.

— Paying for new air conditioning at the St. Louis Police Academy gymnasium. Albrecht said, "It can be 93 degrees there in the summer. The a/c that's there can't possibly keep up when it gets hotter than about 80."

The Police Foundation raised more than $300,000 last year, in part because of its 2007 NFL Kickoff Luncheon. A similar event will be held in September.

The idea to adopt Clyde for city police work began when members of the department's Mounted Patrol visited the Humane Society's Longmeadow Rescue Ranch near Union last fall.

Clyde had been at the ranch on and off since 2002, when he came there as a 2-year-old colt. When the Humane Society first rescued him, he'd been abandoned, was thin and undernourished, said Jeane Jae, a spokeswoman with the Humane Society of Missouri. He had "rain rot," which means his coat was in poor condition from lack of shelter.

He had a hard time finding a permanent home.

In 2003, he was adopted out, but that didn't last. He was returned to the Rescue Ranch in 2005. The owners said he was too much for them to handle, Jae said. In 2006, Clyde was adopted again. He was returned in 2007. The second set of owners said they didn't have enough time to work with him. Last fall, Longmeadow's new horse trainer began working with Clyde.

And when Mounted Patrol officials saw him, they thought Clyde would do be a good fit. They helped the trainer work with him. "They had to pretty much start from square one," Atwood said.

Clyde moved to the Forest Patrol stables in February.

After three months as a team, Clyde and Atwood haven't gotten into any pursuits to speak of inside Forest Park. Atwood has written tickets and made arrests for everything from drunken driving to panhandling. But Atwood said the biggest job of the mounted patrol is interacting with the public.

"Having the horse makes us more approachable," Atwood said. "More than anything, the job is to bond with the public."

kbell@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8115