Baltimore Mounted Patrol Reports To Duty At Preakness

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- With all the expensive horse flesh being trucked into town for the Preakness and all the other big time races, there will be some other working horses at the track.

Mike Schuh reports they'll never win any race but they help to keep the thoroughbreds safe.

Jenny Folk may be the department's most petite officer but at her current assignment, her partner, Officer Malibu, is certainly the biggest.

"Oh yeah, people don't realize how tall we are. We see into backyards, over fences, see into cars," Folk said.

And that is an advantage that comes in handy here. The entire mounted unit will have riders up---some just to patrol the track.

"We have officers in the infield, then security. We're the last resort," Folk said.

The 125-year-old horse unit barely survived the tough budgets but did thanks to corporate and city support, along with citizen donations.

"The police commissioner and the mayor, they decided how important it is to have the animals downtown," said Lt. Milton Corbett, Baltimore Police Department. "They were written into our budget and they are actually written into the budget for the next couple of years."

So whether it's a horse like Slurpee---donated by 7-Eleven---or a donated former Amish draft horse with scars from pulling a plow, those who report to the downtown stables hope 125 years from now, police horses will still be on patrol.

The city's mounted patrol is the oldest equine unit in continuous operation in the country.

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