Montana sheriff’s office trains with horses for mounted patrol unit

KALISPELL, Montana (KECI) — The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office is keeping up with a longstanding tradition by adding some new four-legged partners, the mounted patrol unit.

Officials say horses have been part of the agency’s history for more than 80 years, and they will help provide more possibilities for patrolling.

“It’s basically just adding a more robust capability to the sheriff’s office to be able to patrol in areas that aren’t accessible by patrol car. We have a lot of state land and trails that people like to walk on, so this gives us that capability to go where a car generally wouldn’t be able to go,” said Sergeant Caleb Tappan.

Deputy Ron Eckert expressed how his passions for horseback riding and law enforcement are coming together.

“Personally, I like to be on horseback, and when you’re combining law enforcement with horseback, it opens so many more avenues that can be utilized.”

Horses will help search and rescue teams in remote areas where people can be hard to find or when weather conditions keep the helicopter grounded and help with crowd control.

“When you’re mounted on a horse, you have an advantage point where you can see over crowds and people, and a lot of times you can see potential problem areas developing in a crowd before they even start,” said Tappan.

Tappan says it’s like parking a patrol car in an intersection where you want people to slow down, and that it just gives a mounted presence.

The horses have only been training for a week, focusing on building trust, confidence, knowledge with commands, reinforcing movements, and trainers ensuring those movements are safe.

“It goes against their nature to push against some pressure, but say you were in a crowd control scenario like ‘hey we need to get these people off the fence so the band can go play,’ or whatever, horses will not want to push against that, so we’re basically just building a foundation that ‘hey, it’s ok to kind of get in this guy’s bubble and push against him a little bit,’” said Tappan.

Right now, a team of three sworn deputies, along with Tappan, have completed a mounted officer basic course.

All horses are personally owned, and live at home while not on duty, and these horses bring connection to the community as well.

Tappan says Montana has a rich history and western heritage that people really enjoy and want to be around the horses.

Undersheriff Luke Foster says this brings capability to the sheriff’s office that there wasn’t prior and is excited for this new venture.