Retired police horses enjoy new life at Round Hill Park

By CHRISTINE HAINES

chaines@yourmvi.com

Retirement is often referred to as being put out to pasture; for one group of Allegheny County Police retirees, that’s exactly what it is.

Horses retired from the Allegheny County Mounted Patrol spend their retirement years at Round Hill Park in Elizabeth Township. The working herd lives at South Park. There are currently four retirees in the stables at Round Hill Park: three thoroughbreds, King, Dickerson and Dollar, and a Tennessee Walker named Ginger. 

“We had a few draft horses earlier. We had Fred, he was a Belgian. Moonshine was a Percheron,” said George Ursta, an animal keeper at the park.

Inspector Wes McClellan of the Mounted Patrol, praised Ursta for the care he gives the horses.

“We couldn’t ask for a better person to take care of our retirees,” McClellan said.

An example of that care is the attention given to a horse named Brando, who McClellan said would be better named Lazarus.

“He’s supposed to be dead,” McClellan said.

“Brando, a white Percheron draft horse, had been kicked by one of the other horses and suffered an injury that wasn’t healing. He was to be put down, but the backhoe operator called off,” McClellan said.

Without the backhoe operator, there was no one to bury the horse after he was put down, so he was given a reprieve. After a week of hydrotherapy on his knees at Round Hill Park, Brando improved significantly. He spent a year in retirement at the park before being declared sound enough to be put back onto the police force.

“We almost had to put Dickerson down last year, but we did water treatments on his knee three times a day and he recovered. They’re very well taken care of,” Ursta said.

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