By Missy Wilkinson
The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate
NEW ORLEANS — Packing power in their gleaming muscle, unfazed by flambeaux or flying beads, the Percheron draft horses of the New Orleans Police Department convey authority wherever they go.
But controlling a crowd of roughly a million Mardi Gras visitors isn’t easy. This year, the beasts of burden will have their own emotional support animal.
He’s three feet tall. He has one eye. He’s a miniature horse, tentatively named Patch.
The NOPD’s mounted patrol included ponies prior to Hurricane Katrina, but it has never boasted a miniature horse like the 15-year-old Patch, who was born without one eye, said NOPD public information officer Karen Boudrie.
The impetus was new NOPD Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick, a horse lover who in a statement last week said she was “anxious to see (the NOPD Mounted Unit) in action for my very first Mardi Gras.”
After observing Kirkpatrick’s joyous reaction to a tiny horse visit that she was gifted for a Secret Santa event, the department added Patch permanently.
“Not only will Patch be the superintendent’s friend and the unit’s new one-eyed mascot, he also has a very important job — being a companion to the other horses, reducing their anxiety and relieving boredom,” the NOPD said in a statement.
Patch and the NOPD’s 26 mounts are “already bonding,” with the police horses seen nuzzling him and tossing him food from their stables, Boudrie said.
Since 1925, the NOPD’s mounted unit has been crucial for public safety, crowd control and community engagement, said Sergeant Damond Harris , who transferred to the Mounted Patrol three years ago after serving on the SWAT team.
Harris urged bystanders on parade routes to get permission from mounted officers before touching their horses. At least twice, people have been bitten by horses, he said. One got chomped on the shoulder and another lost a finger. That happens when horses think they’re being offered food, he said.
Members of the public can meet the NOPD’s horses from 11 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday at the department’s stables at 1021 Harrison Avenue.
That venue will also host the NOPD’s Horses, Hops & Cops fundraiser from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 8. Last year, the event raised $31,000 for the mounted unit’s breeding, boarding and equipment costs.
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