APD's Mounted Patrol unit trains for managing big crowds
SAN MARCOS, Texas (KXAN) --- On Wednesday, dozens of police officers from across the state were in San Marcos training with their horses.
During the annual Mounted Patrol Training, officers ran through drills and formations in an effort to help them better prepare for managing large crowds.
"Some of the formations that you saw were column formations, line formations and wedge formations. They're formations that are very effective in crowd management," APD Mounted Patrol Unit Sergeant Al Garibay said.
Garibay said this helps them break up crowds on Sixth Street during the weekend or if there are protests.
"Basically [it] allows us to safely move the pedestrians that are on the street, and encourage them to move to the sidewalks," Garibay said. "In cases of like a riot or protest, we can effectively move them without people getting hurt."
APD Corporal James Pittman said this training helps him and his horse Bishop build muscle memory.
"When we're actually in the heat of it, and we're dealing with the crowds, the sound, the chaos, we don't have to think about what we want our horse to do," Pittman said. "We go right into it."
Jerald Sams is the co-owner of Mounted Patrol International. He helped organize this training.
"There was no unified mounted patrol training in the state of Texas. We saw a need for that," Sams said. "So we put this together in 2020."
Sams said this is a more peaceful way of managing large crowds.
"Everything is geared towards using less force. That's what our goal is, and so we can use less horses, less people and come to a peaceful resolution," Sams said.
For Pittman, while it takes time to work through these exercises, he said its more than just a job.
"Working with the horses, to me, is like therapy," Pittman said. "I don't even feel like an officer sometimes, you know, when I'm working with them."
Along with managing crowds, the unit helps with search and rescues as well as clearing heavily wooded areas of homeless camps.