Horse Illustrated Magazine

Without a doubt, 2009 was filled with bad news in the horse world and the world at large. One depressing trend of recent news is the loss of mounted patrols from cities across America. With the economy forcing cities to cut their budgets in creative and often unfortunate ways, the expensive police horses are an easy target.

Dallas, Boston and Tulsa are just some of the cities that disbanded their mounted police units during 2009. At the same time, Baltimore’s mounted unit was saved, at least for the time being, thanks to creative fundraising by concerned citizens. In some cases, police horses from these disbanded units are retired or donated to police departments in other cities. Oftentimes they are put up for auction to be sold to private owners.

One of the latest casualties of the economy is San Diego’s mounted patrol, and right now the recently unemployed horses and their tack are being auctioned off online. Read the full details here. According to the auction site, the city reserves the right to inspect a buyer’s property to ensure that the horses will go to homes with adequate facilities. They certainly deserve good forever homes after their service to the city of San Diego, and I hope that they find them.

Most of these horses are draft crosses, and due to the nature of their work, they’re undoubtedly about as bombproof as a horse can be. I wanted to draw some attention to this story in case any of our readers on the left coast are in the market for a fabulous trail horse or know someone who is.

You can view the horses and tack (along with other livestock and related items) here.

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