September 2020 Issue

Page 4 September 2020 EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN By Amy Worden The nation’s oldest continu- ously operating police mounted unit is set to disband, a victim of Baltimore City’s budget cutting and efforts to redirect police department funding. But some community leaders aren’t ready to give up, saying the groundswell of support from residents may yet save it. For decades the Baltimore Police Department’s Mounted Unit, founded in 1888, has been housed in an old auto dealership under the Jones Falls Express- way, a locale hardly befitting its longevity and respected role in the communities it served. The celebrated unit’s for- tunes were about to change this summer when its four horses were slated to move to a spanking new $3.5 million facility on the grounds of the B&O Railroad Museum in the southwest corner of the city. But then in June the Bal- timore City Council axed the The Baltimore mounted police and some young visitors are shown next to the newly constructed First Mile Stable on the grounds of the B&O Railroad Museum in southwest Baltimore. The future of the unit is in doubt after funding was cut. Photo credit: B&O Museum Baltimore Disbands 132 Year Old Mounted Police Unit Remember...tell our advertisers you found them in East Coast Equestrian! police budget, eliminating the unit’s $554,000 annual funding amid concerns about the spending of police funds in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis. The decision upset Southwest Baltimore political leaders and community members who recog- nized the unit and the stable as a resource for the neighborhood. “I do support shifting some [BPD] funds, but I’m am not in support of this,” Councilman John Bullock told SouthBMore.com, a news website for the Mt. Claire community where the museum and stable are located. “Hopefully we can get those funds restored.” The Baltimore mounted unit has been on the chopping block before but has always managed to survive, even as the city reduced its complement of equines from a high of 25 horses down to the current four. In 2018 the stable’s ground breaking took place as part of an (Continued on page 10)