Roman before donation to the Philadelphia Mounted Police
And after his owner reclaimed him
What happened to Roman, the four-year-old Percheron, that was donated to the Philadelphia Mounted Police? Kate Brown, barn manager and head trainer at Northwestern Stables in Philadelphia, raised Roman and thought that he would be a great police horse. “I never ask a horse to do a job they are not interested in doing. I really thought that being a police horse was Roman’s calling. I believe he enjoyed doing the work.” Less than a year after donating the horse, Brown has decided that Roman should have other career choices.
Recently she has taken to Facebook to accuse the Philadelphia Mounted Police of not feeding Roman properly. She has also used Facebook to excoriate the police for everything from incompetence to callous disregard for the horses in their care. “Roman worked his a__ off for you 8 hours a day. He did everything you asked of him. He stood in front of fireworks, controlled crowds, patrolled the park and tolerated your beginner riding officers with huge spurs and this is how he was repaid? This Facebook blast is just first on my hit list of getting justice.”
Not Exactly a Happy Trail
How did we get from the start of Roman’s new career to angry Facebook posts? “What we know is there was a social media post by [Brown] in July. She ran into her horse on the street. It was a wonderful day,” explained Dennis Wilson, who is Deputy Commissioner of Special Operations.
Brown said that the day she saw Roman under saddle, the officers rode the horses right to her barn. She was surprised and happy to see the horse, but she thought he looked thin. Shortly afterward, she said she went to the police barn unannounced to see Roman without tack. Lieutenant Joe McBride is in charge of the mounted patrol. Brown said she asked him if Roman looked okay to him. “I didn’t have a long conversation with him, I had already decided I was going to take him out of there after seeing him,” she said.
She said that the barn manager and McBride “blamed” Roman’s condition on many factors. “They blamed it on colic, they blamed it on cribbing. He’s [McBride] blamed it on him being a tough keeper, he’s blamed it on the fact that I sent him to them in this condition.” She said McBride told her that Roman had colicked a number of times, and she was angry that she was not told about this. “He has been a cribber since he was two years old. I’ve never had trouble keeping weight on him. They did not admit to any neglect or lack of feeding or lack of nutrition. They really beat around the bush with their answer.”
She said she told McBride that the horses didn’t look well fed, and that the stable workers could use a nutrition lesson. “I might not have talked to the press about this, or posted on Facebook if he had been more amenable to learning.”
“She showed up at Mounted and requested that she get her horse back because it didn’t look good to her,” Wilson explained. “The Lieutenant prepared a memorandum to go through the chain.” She took her horse back around the 7th or 8th of August. Once Wilson saw the memo and read Brown’s complaints, he called her and told her there would be a full investigation. The same day (August 10) he ordered all the horses off the streets, and he contacted the SPCA, the contracted veterinarians for the Mounted Police and an independent veterinarian. Every horse was examined that day.
One of the veterinarians who examined the horses was Dale Schilling of Ambler. “The bottom line, the horses are healthy and not being abused. There are a few that are a little thin.” Wilson said that the department’s contracted veterinarians have made feed change recommendations. But he adamantly rejects the notion that the people taking care of the horses don’t know what they’re doing, or that they ignore the horses’ conditions. “They’re there every day. We pay a big group to take care of the horses. We have those people there 24 hours a day. They do have training.”
At the Mounted Police Stable, hostlers were busy cleaning stalls, moving horses around and keeping the barn aisles clean. Wilson said they were saddened by all the controversy.
Back Home Again
Roman is quietly eating hay as a fan buzzes outside his stall at Northwestern Stables. He takes a few minutes to sniff the camera aimed at him, then gets back to the hay. It was eight days since Brown brought him home. “I’m going to get him back into good condition under vet recommendation. He’s doing 10 minutes of under saddle at the walk until he’s in ridable condition,” Brown said. “I don’t know what his future is going to be, but he’s going to be under my supervision for the rest of his life.” She was clearly angry and worried about Roman when she vilified the police. Her Facebook posts generated some rather incendiary and misleading commentaries. One commenter said there were “emaciated” horses at the Police Stable.
Roman is a Percheron, with a couple of years to go before he is at his full weight and size. The vets who examined him at Brown’s stable confirmed that he was underweight, but in good health. Brown says that the people at the Mounted Police Stable “took pretty good care of him. He’s still growing,” she said. “Evidently what they were feeding there, it doesn’t cut it for a young horse that’s growing.”