Cannot believe what I just saw on BBC1

the first time I watched that, I assumed the horse was being harshly hit and was pretty appalled..... however..... when I watched it again, properly, it was obvious to me that he was in fact using it to direct the foot police

I really don't think he was using it on the horse any more than a quick smack to stop it trampling the foot officers, and if I was in a similar situation, I'd do the same
 
It's a poor quality film so it's hard to tell but I don't think the officer did strike the horse, even if he did it really wasn't that bad. It was no more than a couple of smacks on top of a padded rug, it was hardly going to do the horse any harm.
I'm sure the officer did what he thought was necessary for the safety of the other officers standing behind him.
Reasurring an animal when it's afraid is often counter productive, the animal perceives the reasurrance as you saying "oh my God I'm scared as well"
I can't believe somebody has taken the time out of their day to complain about a police officer trying to keep his collegues (who were standing close behind him) from being trampled. Some people really do have too much time on their hands, I hope the complaint is treated like the waste of police time that it is.
 
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That is so infuriating!!!! He definetly hit the horse, you can hear the impact from the smacks even from that distance and the horse bucks a bit at the first one.

And yet it doesnt appear he moves his legs at all!!!!!!!!

No justification at all for it, I dont care what training they have any animal would have been scared of that, in fact any person would have been scared of fireworks going off practically underneath them!!!

If the officer wanted to send the horse forward he could have given it a few good kicks before resorting to that. Have you felt how heavy those batons are?
 
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4faults said:
That is so infuriating!!!! He definetly hit the horse, you can hear the impact from the smacks even from that distance and the horse bucks a bit at the first one.

And yet it doesnt appear he moves his legs at all!!!!!!!!

No justification at all for it, I dont care what training they have any animal would have been scared of that, in fact any person would have been scared of fireworks going off practically underneath them!!!

If the officer wanted to send the horse forward he could have given it a few good kicks before resorting to that. Have you felt how heavy those batons are?
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Would you rather the horse trample the officers on foot then? a downed officer can be vulnerable to attack, i did defo see a small buck now that you've mentioned it, but no more of a buck than i've seen with someone getting a bit heavy handed with a whip but thoses horses are trained to deal with this sort of situation the others horses also panicked but held their ground and moved when asked.
 
Ravenwood said:
A police horse in active service doesn't get turned out unlike army horses who get time out.
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Then it must be cardboard cut outs in the field next to the Mounted Section in Bower Ashton then:D (Talking about the same police force as in the video).:D

At first I was shocked by what I thought I saw. But if I was in the same siutation I'm damn sure I would kick and use stick to get horse forward away from trampling anyone else.
 
Kenzo said:
The horse was hit, not something that's nice to see but these horses are trained to do a job, they MUST do it well and be brave, sometimes a horse has to take disapline from it's master in order for it to learn from situations for both the horse and riders safety.

There were offices standing behind, having a large animal like this runing or spining backwards into the other officers on foot would of been very dangerous and caused further problems.

At the time the police officer no doubt did what he felt was the most sensible thing to do at the time....whether it had a rug on or not shouldn't even come into to it.
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Crikey - is this still going?! Read thread last night & left well alone, however I'll just echo what Kenzo & many others have said. The officers behind the horse obviously had to advance at that point. There was no time for any fluffiness - he had to move on then, not 5 minutes later. I'd have done the same in all probability.
 
tinkandlily said:
Would you rather the horse trample the officers on foot then? a downed officer can be vulnerable to attack, i did defo see a small buck now that you've mentioned it, but no more of a buck than i've seen with someone getting a bit heavy handed with a whip but thoses horses are trained to deal with this sort of situation the others horses also panicked but held their ground and moved when asked.
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This horse wasnt asked to move, thats my point. The officer didnt move his legs, he just hit it. I know exactly what these horses are trained for, my best friend works with our mounted sections and I routinely go to help with exercises if they need an extra body but any horse should be asked before being told. If the animal isnt trained enough to go off leg in any situation it shouldnt be on active riot duty.
 
Thing is though, the officers have spurs on, a few big kicks may of caused the horse more harm, also digging your spurs into the sides of a horse that is running back etc won't always send a horse forward, probably back off twice as fast, where as good clout on the backside maybe more effective, or perhaps would of been in that particular situation, you don't have time to weight things up, they just have to act and act fast.
 
He's quite clearly bashing the horse.

I'm not sure how I feel if I'm honest. All the horses reacted in the same way - startled. Obviously in this situation you want them to be as unphased as possible. But at the end of the day they are animals.......
 
between the timescale of 12 seconds and 18 seconds NO-ONE can see what the MPO was asking his horse to do as the camera was facing away from the MPO..

He could have asked the horse to walk on at least once, twice..100 times who knows..

It certainly walked on in a controlled manner after the alleged incident..so it didnt appear to be bothered, did it?
 
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Oh good grief, the sounds of "bashing" you can hear is the batton extending (my brolly makes the same sound when I extend it). If he had really hit that horse with that batton with that force, it would still be running or he'd be on the deck!

His legs appear to be in contact with the horse at all times sending him forward and reassuring him, which if you want to remain secure on a scared horse is the best place to put them, if you take your legs away to "kick" it doesn't really help.

But honestly - no one can really see what is happening the angle is all wrong. Some people just always want to see the bad, unfortunately.

Never mind with all the cuts you guys are about to get, there probably won't be many police horses around soon.
 
The officer is drawing his baton as trained to do. They dont just slide out, they are heavy and you have to be forcefull with them and throw them in a downward motion for them to extend. I have one so feel I am able to say.

It is a bad camera angle but in all honesty I really dont think he hit the horse.
 
4faults said:
That is so infuriating!!!! He definetly hit the horse, you can hear the impact from the smacks even from that distance and the horse bucks a bit at the first one
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4faults said:
.

The horse is wearing a water proof exercise rug. Not sure if that is what the sound is but Even the slightest flick of the schooling whip on my horse when wearing her waterproof exercise sheet makes a hell of a noise dosen't mean it was becasue I hit her that hard!

tinkandlily said:
Would you rather the horse trample the officers on foot then? a downed officer can be vulnerable to attack, i did defo see a small buck now that you've mentioned it, but no more of a buck than i've seen with someone getting a bit heavy handed with a whip but thoses horses are trained to deal with this sort of situation the others horses also panicked but held their ground and moved when asked.
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^^^^ Couldn't agree more
These horses are trained to do a job they go through extensive "despooking" training and they need to do as asked immediatley they are there to help and protect not cause additional problems and a spooking horse can be dangerous in that kind of situation. I have seen police horses deal with much worse situations at football matches I have been to and they barely move a muscle. I'm not saying these horses are machines but they are trained to do the job.
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I am appaled that someone should throw fireworks at the horses. It could have caused serious injury to the horse, policeman and anyone else in the area.

I very much hope that they catch the person responsible and that they get a nice long sentence at one of Her Majesty's Prisons older prisons.
 
Ladylina83 said:
I thougt this too how bloody brave ! He just stands there and looks at it, you can really tell he's fighting his flight instinct ! Brave boy
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The one in thet main shot is the one that got "beaten", if you watch when the camera points in that direction the second time, you can see the horse has bolted to the back.
 
Have looked at the video several times and the horse was definitely not hit. The police officer was just get the baton to extend. When he/she appears to hit down hardest with the baton the horse doesn't even flinch he bravely walks forward - it's obvious he hasn't been hit.
Instead of rushing to berate the mounted police (instead of praising both horse & rider for being so tolerant) we should be disgusted at the behaviour of people who are supposed to be intelligent - what sort of person behaves in such a way as these 'so called' students have been. I'm all for expressing your opinion & getting it heard but the violence that has been used by the 'student' protestors recently leaves me appalled at what is happening to our country. Violence is the voice of ignorance! They don't deserve to be given a place at any university.
 
im ashamed to be classed as a student.



put the bl00dy fees up for the scum coming up..... those are the ones protesting as im already at uni - wont affect me.


appauled :(
 
Its not clear if he was hitting the horse but if he was thats horrible, they should have reasurred the horses not hit them! No animal would want to go towards a group of angry people throwing fireworks especially horses being flight animals! and i also think the students are behaving very stupidly, i am going to be affected by the student fees too, but throwing fireworks at horses isn't going to help them!
 
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tinkandlily said:
The one in thet main shot is the one that got "beaten", if you watch when the camera points in that direction the second time, you can see the horse has bolted to the back.
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Actually I mean the one at the front of the shot, as in closest to the camera - you know the one with the firework at its feet ! ! Jeees

I've watched it again and I don't think any contact was made !
 
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JUST TO UPDATE YOU ALL.

The officer used the baton to encourage the horse to move back up into the line. The welfare of the horse and safety of all concerned in Bristol was ALWAYS uppermost and any suggestion of misuse is ALWAYS investigated. There were 4 arrests and that includes the person with the firework.
 
If you look at the begining of the video the Officers Batons are all already extended (attached to their right legs) so I am going with the theory that he was directing the police on the ground ... or giving the horse a couple of smacks to make it go forward.

Sometimes it's not a perfect world, sometimes police horses aren't 100% bombproof and ready to go on the frontline and a situation may arise that isn't ideal (tosspot firework throwing students!) all a MPO can do is deal with it as he see's fit in that split second :p he has to make a decision.

xx
 
spaniel said:
JUST TO UPDATE YOU ALL.

The officer used the baton to encourage the horse to move back up into the line. The welfare of the horse and safety of all concerned in Bristol was ALWAYS uppermost and any suggestion of misuse is ALWAYS investigated. There were 4 arrests and that includes the person with the firework.
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I got to this post too late! was about to post to say that it was most likely a technique used to divert the horses attention from the firework and back to his rider! It looked like the rider swung to give it a serious smack but the horse didn't even flinch. I know a member of the Irish Mounted unit described a similiar diversionary tactic to me when dealing with spooky horses in a high pressure situation where you can either use a mild tap or a swing to "show" a horse a whip similiarly to what jockeys do to bring the horses attention back to their handler.
 
Ladylina83 said:
Actually I mean the one at the front of the shot, as in closest to the camera - you know the one with the firework at its feet ! ! Jeees

I've watched it again and I don't think any contact was made !
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I know which one your talking about it's stands while the firework is near it's feet, then the camera looks at the crowd, looks back to where the horse was standing and it has moved back and it is the one that gets hit.
 
spaniel said:
JUST TO UPDATE YOU ALL.

The officer used the baton to encourage the horse to move back up into the line. The welfare of the horse and safety of all concerned in Bristol was ALWAYS uppermost and any suggestion of misuse is ALWAYS investigated. There were 4 arrests and that includes the person with the firework.
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i was hoping you would ask ****** ****** of the Avon & Somerset Mounted Police Division, the real story.

i'm glad they could confirm what happened.

thank you Spaniel
 
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