The mounted unit of Hyderabad Police is set to start a horse riding training course for youngsters after getting its personnel trained for sports including equestrian and polo.
"We are planning on this (to initiate training for civilians). As part of a small public-police partnership, we are thinking of inviting and training young boys and girls keen on taking up adventure sports," Additional Commissioner of Police (Law & Order) Anjani Kumar told PTI.
Beginners will be imparted horse riding lessons and workshops will also be conducted for 15 to 20 days as part of the course, he said. "We will start the process (training for civilians) once the elections are over."
The mounted police squad, one of the oldest in the country dating back to Nizam era, is now training in equestrian sports and also forming a polo team. It is the only mounted police unit in Andhra Pradesh.
The horse-mounted police, generally deployed for crowd control, patrolling and ceremonial duties, are now being trained in sports and familiarised with traffic conditions.
"The mounted police unit has a sanctioned strength of 40 horses. We have procured about 12 new Indian thoroughbred horses. They are used by metropolitan police across the world as they are strong, taller and easy to train," Kumar said.
"Here we have got most of the horses from race course so we have to train and re-orient them to our requirements. At the race course, the horses are trained only to run fast. It takes a lot of effort and training for us to re-orient these horses," said Kumar, who along with some experts, is supervising training aspects of horses and personnel.
"Police horses, like policemen, need to have a lot of patience. They are required to be observant of their surroundings and show tolerance. We are training them for longer duty hours, primarily patrolling. Plans are afoot to purchase equipment like body protectors, face and eye protectors for horses," the officer said.
"We will ask local manufacturers to make plastic shields (like a helmet) for horses to protect them during stone-pelting incidents. Fourteen stables have been constructed as per international standards to take care of health and hygiene of horses," Kumar added.
