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This morning in Toronto, there was a funeral for Brigadier, a police horse killed in the line of duty; a full-scale officer's funeral, attended by the mayor, several provincial officials, and the other horse and dog units.
Brigadier was killed by a $#%$ who rammed him and his rider with a van, breaking some of the officer's bones. green_trilobite says the horse probably absorbed most of the impact, saving his rider's life. Someone would have to be pretty callous to try and kill a horse that way, and pretty careless of their own life: a horse is a big animal, and Brigadier was a Belgian cross; one of the news articles shows the damage done to the van. A few years ago, I saw a horse-cop block an escaping suspect's car before he could pull out of a parking spot; giving the guy no room to build up momentum. In the same way, if you are in a stall with a horse and have to walk behind it, you should stay as close as possible to its hindquarters so it can't kick; and when around horses, approach them from the left side. That's the side on which they are trained to expect humans. In another shot, Brigadier can be seen lying on his right side, and the officers gathered around him, the ones who had eventually to euthanize him on the spot, are bent over his left .
R.I.P.
Brigadier was killed by a $#%$ who rammed him and his rider with a van, breaking some of the officer's bones. green_trilobite says the horse probably absorbed most of the impact, saving his rider's life. Someone would have to be pretty callous to try and kill a horse that way, and pretty careless of their own life: a horse is a big animal, and Brigadier was a Belgian cross; one of the news articles shows the damage done to the van. A few years ago, I saw a horse-cop block an escaping suspect's car before he could pull out of a parking spot; giving the guy no room to build up momentum. In the same way, if you are in a stall with a horse and have to walk behind it, you should stay as close as possible to its hindquarters so it can't kick; and when around horses, approach them from the left side. That's the side on which they are trained to expect humans. In another shot, Brigadier can be seen lying on his right side, and the officers gathered around him, the ones who had eventually to euthanize him on the spot, are bent over his left .
R.I.P.
