Rio & Rich Fecht

Officer Rich Fecht grew up in North Babylon, New York, on Long Island. He moved to Richmond in January of 1994 and joined the Richmond Police Force in 1996. Sgt. Eric Bardon seemed to see something in Rich that would make a great mounted officer and recruited him to join the mounted unit in 1999. He did not have riding experience but a great athletic ability. He started to learn to ride, as many of the new mounted officers, on Klinger (now retired).Once he mastered Klinger, he moved on to Max, Shorty, and Joey. When Joey retired this year (2007) he was assigned the new horse, Rio. Rio,a six-year-old the warm-blood mix, had been imported from Canada. He was then donated to the Richmond Mounted Unit by a woman in Crewe, Virginia. Friday, August 17th, around 8:00 a.m.Jeff Klein (the Farrier) noticed him starting show signs of a possible colic. At first the problem did not seem serious, but as the day progressed it became worse. About 3:30 p.m. Rich was worried enough that he called the vet and Sgt. Bardon. The vet said that he needed to be taken immediately to Blue Ridge Equine Clinic to be evaluated. So Eric and Rich drove him up to Charlottesville for evaluation. At Blue Ridge they advised immediate surgery. Rio was in surgery for about an hour. This whole ordeal was over about 10:00 p.m. that evening. As of the following Monday, Rio was eating, passing manure, and did not have a fever. On Wednesday, August 22nd, he returned to the Police stables. His life has been saved and he will be returning to work in a few months.

We have had many questions about what the money we raise does, and here is a great example. The city would not pay for the surgery, so we did. If this is not a good use of our funds and a great example of why we do what we do, I don't know what is.

Thanks to all our members and sponsors.