A Day in the Life of a Mounted Patrol Officer

Recruiting photo of Julie and Ranger

People often ask me, “Where does your mounted patrol unit find your bombproof horses?”  My answer to them is, “Anywhere! We now have Parelli!”

My name is Julie Payne and I work for the Austin Police Mounted Patrol unit in Austin, Texas.  I have been an officer for 14 years, and 8 of those years I have been on mounted patrol.  I have been practicing Parelli for 3 years.  It is my goal to become a Parelli Instructor so I can share Natural Horsemanship to other mounted police units.  The first step on my journey to becoming a Parelli Professional is to complete the Fast-Track Course.  I start this challenging course November 1^st, 2010 at the Florida Parelli Campus and I have been asked to share my experiences with everyone!  Please follow me on Facebook,  Twitter and my personal blog.

As you can guess, my first five years on mounted patrol was full of Force, Fear and Intimidation! I was trained to saddle up and get on, kick the horse to go, pull the horse to stop and treat the horse like an inanimate object. I was told never to fall in love with my horse or show my horse any affection because I may need to use the horse for cover during a shooting incident. I never let anyone see me pet my horse or give my horse a treat for fear of being made fun of or yelled at. I was even taught to knee my horse in his belly so I could tighten the cinch as tight as it needed to be on the first try. Most training days my horse was stiff and impulsive, I was afraid of falling off but never would I get off! I was told to cowgirl up! Working in the crowds, my horse was unconfident and spooky, but somehow I learned to get the job done.

In 2006 I was told by my Sergeant that I would be the new rider trainer. I had been looking into different natural trainers, watching RFDTV, and I really liked what I saw, but I was confused about which trainer to follow, which trainer was right. Then one day I was reading an article in a horse magazine about Linda and Pat Parelli. The article inspired me!

“When the human learns to see life from a horse’s point of view and build a horse-human relationship with equal doses of love, language and leadership, true partnership is possible and problems melt away. There is nothing you cannot do when your horse becomes a part of you. The beauty of the Parelli program is that it enables people to achieve true success with their horsemanship while still allowing the horse to have the dignity he deserves.”

Dignity?!? That is what I have been missing! Love, language and leadership?! None of the other natural trainers mention that! I was hooked.  I wanted to jump on the Parelli bandwagon, and so I did!

Bareback day with Ranger

In 2007, the Austin Police Mounted Patrol Unit was given a new Sergeant. He took on the challenge of getting every officer on the same Parelli page. It was a bumpy road, some officers left the unit, some retired early, but our minds finally opened! With all these efforts, we are proud to say that the Austin Police Mounted Patrol Unit is one of the first all natural mounted units in the world!

Before Parelli, I would come to work, sit in the office and talk for an hour, drag my horse out of the stall, saddle him up, put him in the trailer, drive to downtown Austin, take my horse out of the trailer, get on my horse, go into a large crowd (sea of predators), kick him to go, pull him to stop and use the reins to turn.  I am truly amazed that during those pre-Parelli days I was not killed or seriously injured.  What saddens me the most is this is how 99% of mounted police units still operate!  They cannot, or will not, step away from the ingrained military style of riding.  Heels down!  Toes forward!  Arch your back! Close your hands!  I have been to many mounted schools around Texas where the focus is to try and scare the hair off your horse by using all of these impossible obstacles, flares, smoke, and gunshots, without any preparation to the horse or rider.  If you have not fallen off your horse by the end of the school, you pass!  WHAT!?!?

Julie and Ranger

I don’t know about you guys, but I value my bones, tendons and skull very much!  I do not want them cracked or broken.

A typical day at work for me now, during my Parelli journey, I come to work and spend undemanding time with my horse while he grazes, instead of wasted time in the office catching up on gossip.  I spend time playing with my horse using The Seven Games before I ever even think of saddling.  With just this small amount of preparation, saddling and trailering is a breeze!

After I arrive in downtown Austin, I spend much more time preparing my horse for what the night may hold.  We walk to a park and continue playing The Seven Games freestyle, setting up cloverleaf patterns, bulls-eyes, question boxes, and other patterns with small soccer cones.  Then, more undemanding time and grazing!  It is all about keeping my partner comfortable and trusting in my leadership.

From the park we begin walking through downtown Austin traffic.  We write parking tickets, conduct traffic stops and subject stops.  All of this is done without ever getting off our horse.  You really need to master the art of keeping your lower body separate to what your upper body is doing, and if you are not sure, try riding a 16.2 hand horse and putting a parking ticket on a Mazda Miata!

Around 11pm, the entertainment district is barricaded off for pedestrians only.  Our primary duty now becomes crowd control.  On any given weekend, the entertainment district could have from ten thousand people to over one hundred thousand people.  Most of these people are intoxicated from visiting the many bars along the street.  Horses are valuable tools in a crowd.  One well trained officer on a horse equals ten officers on foot in crowd scenarios.  Most people have a natural respect for a horse, and will move out of the way.  Now I say “most” because when alcohol is in the mixture, things could get strange.  I have seen people wanting their picture made while standing behind the horse holding his back legs and some think it is okay to just haul off and hit the horse in the hindquarter.  I have even had someone hit my horse in the head with a full can of soda.  Fortunately, horses that serve are treated just like the officers that serve.  If someone hits them, they go to jail.  The funny thing is you actually get a higher charge for assaulting or injuring a horse verses doing the same to me!  I guess I am easier to replace.

Swimming with Ranger

At the end of night, it is mounted patrol’s responsibility to suggest that pedestrians move to the sidewalk so the street can be reopened for cars.  Again, I use the word “suggest” with a grain of salt.  Mix alcohol and cell phones together and you have a pedestrian that is impossible to reach!  When was the last time you had a thousand pound prey animal sneak up on you?

Our unit dedicates one day a week to train.  For the past three months we have had 4-Star Parelli Professional Instructor Christi Rains teach us and our horses!  During this time, three of our new officers completed Level 1 and another completed Level 2.  The remaining officers are Level 3 and 4.  Christi is so patient and we look forward to our time spent with her.  I recently had a private lesson with Christi to prepare for the Fast-Track course.  After the hour had passed, I ran to the office and spilled out all the new information in my brain to paper before I forgot any piece of it!  I loved getting positive feedback about how I could improve for my horse.  He is my true partner.  He takes care of me while we are working and I take care of him.  We stay true to each of our four responsibilities and many added responsibilities from the pressure of police work.

I hope you will follow along with me on my Parelli journey!

Officer Julie Payne
Austin Police Department
Mounted Patrol

Tagged as: Christi Rains, Julie Payne, Parelli Media, Parelli Natural Horsemanship