- The Bethlehem Mounted Police will host their annual open house Saturday, Sept. 9
- Folks can meet the six horses and police officers from noon to 5 p.m.
- The open house will be held at the Quadrant Private Wealth Stable, where the horses are kept, at 615 E. Langhorne Ave.
BETHLEHEM, Pa. — These swift and powerful police officers don’t need firearms. They have mighty hooves that protect and serve.
Meet Mason, Star, Grey, Asa, Casper and Seamus— the equine members of the Bethlehem Mounted Police.
The unit, established in 2009, will host its seventh annual Bridle and Badges open house on Saturday, Sept. 9, at the Quadrant Private Wealth Stable at 615 E. Langhorne Ave.
Not just fighting crime
The Mounted Police Division is comprised of two full-time Bethlehem police officers, Ryan Danko and Justin Madera, as well as five part-time officers who also assist with patrol duties and high-traffic events such as Musikfest and Celtic Classic, as well as around the holidays in the Christmas City.
"In rain or snow, the horses go out on weekly patrol assignments, downtown and in the business and arts district and on the Southside, where we walk through the college campuses and on bar patrols," said Madera, who joined the mounted division in 2020 after 12 years on the force. "We do our normal patrol routines. We can do traffic enforcement and we do issue different types of parking tickets and things of that nature when we're able to."
When they're not manning the streets, the horses spread year-round cheer.
"We tend to do a lot of community engagement, letting people see the softer side of policing," Madera said. "All police officers are not what you see being portrayed in the media, in that we're pretty comfortable saying we have a good rapport with our community and the horses play a big part in that."
Friends of the horses
The city brought back its mounted unit in 2009 after a nearly 70-year hiatus.
The horses originally were housed at the Burnside Plantation in an 1840s-era barn. After outgrowing that space, they moved to Bay Ridge Stables in East Allen Township.
Since 2017, they've resided in a pristine barn nestled in a quiet neighborhood on Langhorne Avenue, off Linden Street.
The half-million dollar stable was built with money raised by the Friends of the Bethlehem Mounted Police (FBMP), an organization that formed in 2011 to cover the costs of the mounted unit as funds from the city budget dried up.
"Watching the bond between the officers and the horses, they're true partners. They're working for each other," said Diane Mack, president of the FBMP group.
"The officer is protecting the horse and the horse is protecting the officers. That to me is one of the most rewarding things and I'm so proud to be able to support that effort."
FBMP hosts fundraisers at pop-up events, along with its Bridle and Badges open house, which is perhaps its biggest campaign.
The Friends also recruit and rely on volunteers to work at the stables to muck stalls, feed and clean.
"We always joke that they have 40-45 mothers who help take care of these guys," Danko said. "About half of our volunteer corps are trained to handle the horses, bring them in, feed them and turn them out. With us being the only two full-time officers, we can't be here 24/7. Sometimes we're working late in the night, patrolling a bar until it closes."
A bond like no other
The police officers arrive to the mounted division with little or no equestrian skills.
Danko, a member of the Bethlehem Police Department since 2010, joined the mounted division in 2018.
"Starting here and riding them, I realized how intelligent they were, how much personality they had and how different every horse is — you can take one horse out and he will act completely different than another horse," he said. "They have good days and bad days. Seeing that and learning their personalities, honesty, it has been one of my absolute favorite things since I've been here."
Before mounted officers can saddle up, they must complete 100 hours of training where they learn how to walk, trot and canter with their new partner.
"After that, we start introducing arrest and patrol techniques and doing crowd control formations," Madera said. "There is a list of 56 tasks the officers have to complete. It's very involved."
No horsing around
The equines also go through rigorous training.
Five out of the six horses are graduates of the Service Mounts Program at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky.
"One of the college students will come into the program and be paired with a horse until completion of their training, which is one to three years," Danko explained.
"My primary horse, Casper, I've known since he was 2 years old. I've seen how much he's grown and changed through the years. It's remarkable. You always hear about the bond thing with a horse, I just didn't know what it was before."
The Mounted Patrol's biggest beast, a Belgian/Percheron cross named Mason, weighs 1,900 pounds.
He's also the butt of a long-running quip.
"We joke that five of our six horses are college-educated, because Mason was born on a farm in Ohio," Danko said.
What he lacks in education, Mason makes up for in bravery.
To join the police force, the horses must demonstrate courage after being exposed to harrowing situations — gunshots and all.
"We'll bring the horses around the trail or in the truck and walk them around without the vehicle running to get them used it. Then we'll turn the vehicle on," Madera said.
"Then we'll flash the lights and elevate to a siren, so that the horse is standing right next to a patrol car and walking around it with the lights and sirens."
The horses then get exposed to louder vehicles such as the department's motorcycles, the city's firetrucks, and even helicopters.
"We put the horses out on the road while the motorcycles do figure-eights around the horses revving the engines," Madera said. "It's really anything we would encounter outside of the stable, so that the first time they see it they don't spook or run away."
A special role
The mounted division is one of six equine patrols in the state and 125 nationwide — a badge both Danko and Madera wear with honor.
"It takes a certain type of officer to really want to do this. We are very community-involved and you have to want to get out there and do as much as you can every day, as well as want to work with horses," Madera said.
"We realize how special it is. Not a lot of people want to be a police officer in today's society. Just being a police officer is special to us, but being able to be a police officer that rides horse every day and perform our official duties from horseback, there's nothing like it."
Saturday's Bridles and Badges event starts at noon and runs until 5 p.m.
There will be live music, police and equine demonstrations and live entertainment.
For more information, check out the website of the Friends of the Bethlehem Mounted Patrol.
