THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 12, 1995 TAG: 9505110153
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 153 lines
RIDING A HORSE isn't as easy as it looks on the silver screen, newcomers to the Police Mounted Patrol have learned - even for seasoned recreational riders.
Those furry, oat-eating critters, be they draft horses with skillet-size hooves, or swifter Arabians or muscular Rhinelanders, have minds of their own.
This became all too apparent to Darren Savino, 29, a Long Island, N.Y., native and one of five officers who graduated May 5 from the nine-week police riding academy.
Savino, a 5 1/2-year veteran on the Virginia Beach force, ruefully admitted to being dumped on the seat of his regulation blues by his training mount four times in one week.
``Once was an isolated incident,'' he said. ``But that one week was rough - it was aspirin and Motrin. It was like three falls in a three-day period. Two in the one day just killed me. I couldn't get out of bed the next day.''
His mount was adamant about going through training exercises on her own terms.
``She was new and didn't want anybody on her back,'' said Savino. ``One time I kind of gave her mixed signals. She was told to do two things at once. It was my fault. The second time she just had enough, so she threw me off.''
Savino's veteran riding partner, Mary Jo Sartorius, was coming to grips with equine willfulness on a lesser scale during a morning grooming session two weeks ago at the police stables at Camp Pendleton.
Joe, the dun colored Belgian draft horse under her care, was caked with mud from having rolled in the rain-soaked corral earlier in the morning. A cloud of dust rose from his flanks after each stroke of the brush in her hand. ``Why did you have to go and roll in the mud?'' she scolded gently. ``Now look at you!''
Tethered next to Joe near the stall entrance was Sox Appeal, a big bay Rhinelander, the mount of Master Police Officer James M. Avery, an experienced rider who also raised dust clouds with each brisk brush stroke.
This was Sox Appeal's first year as a police mount, said Avery, a 7-year police veteran, so a little departure from departmental grooming regulations could be forgiven.
Patrol leader Sgt. Forrest Capps conceded that he had much to learn about horses and riding despite some recreational experience in the saddle. Capps said he and his wife enjoyed weekend riding and even signed up last summer for a dude cattle drive out West.
``It's just different,'' he said of the police training academy regimen, which emphasizes discipline and close order group movements on horseback. Also ``different'' is sitting astride a mount on an English saddle, which doesn't have the heft or security of a western saddle, with its handy saddle horn and covered stirrups.
Capps and Savino were among the five graduates of the academy who took part in ``commencement exercises'' May 5 with 11 regular members of the mounted patrol. The ceremonies took place before a modest crowd of onlookers and included group maneuvers before Police Chief Charles R. Wall.
The event marked the 10th anniversary of the city's mounted patrol, founded in March 1985 with eight officers. One of them was Kurt Wesseler, now a master police officer and still on the unit after a hiatus of a year or two.
The mounted patrol was the brainchild of then-Lt. Frank M. Drew, who was its first commanding officer and chief proponent. He is now Virginia Beach sheriff.
Drew said the concept of a mounted patrol unit arose from a graduate thesis he had written in the early 1980s as part of a course in public administration.
``I wrote a college paper on the feasibility of starting a mounted patrol in Virginia Beach,'' he said.
Drew and Police Sgt. Paul Lanteigne - later a one-term city councilman - put the proposal together, won the endorsement of the Resort Area Advisory Commission, then got the City Council's approval. With eight officers, six donated mounts and a little more than $18,000 in city money, Drew borrowed space at Camp Pendleton for a stable and began to train his novice riders.
Cashvan Arabians, a horse farm located near City Hall at the time, helped raise funds. Jay Wilks, a Norfolk lawyer who then managed the farm, headed a fund-raising organization called Friends of the Mounted Patrol. To this day the group helps the patrol unit obtain donated mounts and money for tack and riding gear for police officers.
``We picked the police officers, did our training academy and that summer we were out on the street,'' said Drew.
What prompted him to propose a mounted patrol unit?
``I was a D.C. cop back during the riots in the late '60s and I saw the mounted police work during the riots,'' he said.
``I was so impressed with them. I watched them in their everyday operations when I could and I just always was impressed with how effective they were with crowds.''
Mounted police were as adept at winning friends as they were controlling unruly crowds, Drew observed.
``I saw kids down at the reflecting pool,'' he said. ``Busloads of kids would unload and none of them would run to the statues. They'd all run to the policemen on horses and I thought what a great thing this would be for Virginia Beach.''
The attraction remains strong today.
``People just love 'em,'' said Drew. ``Even in a rough housing area, if you ride through there on a horse, people will talk to you. You ride through there in a car, they wouldn't be seen talking to you.''
Despite his limited horseback experience, Savino confirms Drew's assessment of the value of a policeman on horseback.
``I've worked Friendship Village and Atlantis Apartments and usually when you show up you're not too welcome,'' he said. ``But on a horse everybody kind of liked me. I liked that.''
Savino had worked on the city's police narcotics unit for several years, then did a stint as a uniformed patrol officer. Recently, he decided he needed a change of assignments to rejuvenate his enthusiasm.
``I was kind of burned out,'' he conceded. Policing from a saddle looked like a promising career move.
``I've walked a beat before,'' he said. ``I've ridden a mounted bike. I've ridden a motorcycle, and I've done the ATV on the beach and this is, by far, better than all of them.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover]
[Color Photo]
HORSE-POWERED PATROLS
Staff photos, including color cover, by DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH
Sergeant F.P. Capps, the mounted patrol leader, musters the troops
before morning training, feeding and cleaning. ``It's just
different,'' he said of the nine-week police riding academy
regimen.
Veteran rider Mary Jo Sartorius, takes her horse Joe, a dun-colored
Belgian draft horse, through a police tape training course.
Darren Savino and Todd Jones learn a few unpleasant duties
associated with the riding academy, including cleaning out the
stalls for the next arriving horse.
Staff photos by DAVID B. HOLLINGSWORTH
Weeks of training and graduation behind them, officers Darren Savino
and Mary Joe Sartorius share a beat on the Boardwalk. They make a
popular attraction.
LEFT: Officer Darren Savino and veteran mounted police officer James
Avery watch as Todd Jones receives his equitation award during the
graduation ceremony.
RIGHT: Officer Mary Jo Sartorius grooms her horse Joe, who collected
his share of mud and dust after a day of training at Camp Pendleton.
``Why did you have to go and roll in the mud?'' she scolded gently.
``Now look at you!''
``People just love 'em. Even in a rough housing area, if you ride
through there on a horse, people will talk to you. You ride through
there in a car, they wouldn't be seen talking to you.''
Sheriff Frank Drew,
who first proposed the 10-year-old Beach mounted patrol
by CNB