North American Police Equestrian Competition 2007

 

The weekend of September 21-23, 2007 four of our Richmond mounted officers participated in the North American Police Equestrian Competition.  This year the competition was held in Gaithersburg, Maryland and hosted by the US Park Police.  The event is divided into three sections, the Uniform Class, the Equitation Class and the Obstacle Course.

Starting off this year’s competition was the Uniform Inspection class.  Appearance is an important part of police work, it is an indication of pride and professionalism.  Officers and mounts are judged on polished neatness, cleanliness and overall general appearance of clothing and tack.  The winner of this competition takes home the “Robert Lewis Parnell Perpetual Trophy”.  This trophy is named in memory of a civilian member of the U.S. Park Police, who provided many years of outstanding service to the mounted unit; prior to his untimely death. 

In the Equitation class competition the officers are judged on their seat, control, flexibility, riding ability and skills at a walk, trot, canter and other tests.  The event is based solely on the skill of the rider not the mount.  Riders were judged on their position, proper equitation and ability to control their horse.  The winner of this event receives the “Chesapeake Training Center Perpetual Equitation Trophy”.

The final competition of the weekend is the Obstacle course. 

This course consists of numerous, diverse obstacles that challenge both horse and rider.  This year’s obstacles included, an amusement park with blowing clowns and ball pit, a clown popping balloons, and a water hazard.  The winner of this event brings home the “McCarthy Trophy”.  This is a memorial trophy established in 1988 to honor the late William D. McCarthy of the Philadelphia Police Department.  Officer McCarthy and his horse, Skipper, were killed in the line of duty in 1987.

The partnership of officer and equine mount are the essence of this job, and so the competition was put together.  Over the years the competition has had a number of changes but the basic concept has stayed the same.  The basic concept was a “hack” class and the obstacle course.  The competition has brought opportunity for every department to be able to attend.  It only requires one horse and rider to be able to show police management, that time spent on training was a benefit to their departments.  Time out on patrol is really time spent training your mount.  It is the day-to-day contact of horse and rider that builds the trust between the two and produces the capable partnership.  The purpose in this competition is to bring officer and horse together to display their trust and confidence to the public they are sworn to protect. 

Because of the current horse situation of our squad, they were at a definite disadvantage.  The only true partnerships were Officer Jeff Napier with Dick Tracey and Freddy Mason with June’s Lightning.  Rich Fecht was riding Sgt. Bardon’s partner, Roadrunner (while Rio is recuperating from his surgery) and Rob Lehr was riding Nuke Street Beach while he searches for a new partner.  Officer Fecht and Roadrunner looked wonderful during the Uniform Competition.  With Officer Fecht in full uniform (and Officer Jeff Napier having polished Roady’s feet to a brilliant shine) they were able to bring home the 9^th place ribbon.  Hopefully by next year we will have solid officer and equine partnerships set and really bring home the ribbons.