Mounted Section
Welcome to West Yorkshire Police Mounted Section - front line officers that operate high profile Police work and Neighbourhood Policing on horseback.
Our Mounted Section carries out daily operational patrols in crime areas, carrying out proactive stop checks, gathering intelligence and making arrests.
Mounted Officers are a valuable deterrent for crime prevention work and offer public reassurance in the areas they are deployed to.
Our Mounted Officer’s value in public disorder and crowd safety situations sees them regularly policing the various football stadiums in the County.
In addition to covering our own Force area, we are also highly sort after nationally, often attending other Force areas to assist with large scale public order events.
Our Mounted Section are a multi-role team, not only do we Police the Front line, protect the public, but we also assist in the more personal details of Policing such as ceremonial duties, civic or military parades and funerals, honouring those that have served in the Police and representing our Force with pride dressed in our formal uniform.
Our section is always on the lookout for suitable horses which can pass certain criteria in relation to size, temperament and conformation.
Horses complete a four to six week trial period prior to purchase before being slowly introduced into all aspects of police work and should be fully operational within two years.
We are supported by a dedicated team of grooms who always make sure our horses are well looked after. Some of our horses join the force at a young age and provide us with many years of loyal service.
We look to retire our horses between the ages of 18 to 20 years old and arrangements are made to find them their forever home where they can enjoy the company of other horses and animals in a peaceful and quiet setting.
Both our horses and officers are all trained to a high standard on a regular basis. This includes riding ability and public order scenarios.
We are fortunate to have access to a large public order arena which enables us to simulate disorder with props, music and atmosphere.
We are a committed and hard-working group of officers, but we can always find the time to talk to members of the public, help where we can and answer any questions you may have.