Following a winding road, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Mounted Unit’s home base — its two barns and an office building — can be found among the trees and foliage of Okeeheelee Park.
There, living in the peace and tranquility, are a cat, a dog and seven horses, who call the area home. They’re cared for by PBSO officers, a civilian, volunteers and veterinarians, all of whom understand just what an important job these four-legged creatures are entrusted to do.
Leading the Mounted Unit is Sgt. John Howley, who, after about a decade on the job, is looking to retire next year. Overall, Howley has been with the Mounted Unit for almost 25 years.
“I’ve always had a passion for horses; I grew up riding horses as a kid,” he said. “Horses get under your skin. Once you’re involved with them, it’s really hard to leave it and do anything different. I’ve always enjoyed the bond with another sentient being, as well as being outside and being involved, being closer to what I’m doing as far as meeting people and interacting.”
Howley has always had a passion for the law, and for horses. The Mounted Unit allows him to combine the best of both worlds.
“We’re a complement to the law enforcement efforts of Palm Beach County,” Howley said. “We’re a complement to road patrol as well as the protective bureau. We respond to different requests for patrol. We can get into different areas with a horse that you can’t get into with a car, in between houses, behind houses, along the canal banks, easements, things like that.”
The unit frequently visits Lake Worth, and are able to get through to many areas that you can’t access in a car. That’s the patrol function, he explained.
Of course, it would be remiss to overlook the unique public relations aspect of the Mounted Unit’s job.
“We do a lot of public relations details, but we also patrol just about every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Howley said, explaining that people will run up to the officers, and their horses, while on patrol to see what is going on. “Especially in the summertime, anywhere from two to four different camps, probably five or six special details a week, where we’re going in and talking to kids about what we do… There’s really nothing like it. For a lot of kids, who have only seen a horse in a book, it’s really something for them to see it.”
In some of the more urban places the unit goes, some of the residents have never seen horses, and many have never seen horses the size of some of the PBSO horses — two of the mares are Belgian draft horses, and several are 18 hands (6 feet) or taller. Some of the horses weigh more than 2,000 pounds.
“People will come out of their house if they hear a horse clomping down the street,” Howley said. “It isn’t something you see every day.”
Officers use the horses as a means to get around in places where cars aren’t practical, and they are also used for crowd control purposes at special events.
“It’s a way where we can shift people, if we need to, without being blunt about it. It’s sort of nonchalant,” he said, explaining that the horses are so large that people will step backward.
A horse’s stature alone is enough to shift those who are in the way. When sitting on one of the horses, the officers are more than 10 feet off the ground.
It’s a job for the horses, and more so for those who care for them. They are extremely well cared for, with nutritious hay, feed, water and everything else a horse could want or need. During the summer, when it is hot out, they take one shift a day. When it is cooler out, they go out twice daily. The trailers contain everything the horses need while they are out and about.
All of the horses have their own distinct personalities. “They are like 5-year-old kids. They can be cheeky; they can be sweet. They can be grumpy at times,” Howley said, as Dakota, one of the Belgian draft mares, sniffed at him affectionately. “Dakota’s probably the sweetest, most gregarious horse we have.”
Along with Dakota, who is 13, is Zip, a 20-plus-year-old purebred; Arthur, a 19-year-old Percheron draft; Amadeus, a 15-year-old Warmblood cross; Valor, a 13-year-old Clydesdale; Alibi, an 11-year-old Belgian draft; and Tank, an 8-year old draft cross. And, of course, Lamont the cat and Ronney the dog.
The horses call their barns, one built in 1984 and the other in 1989, home. Since 1994, Howley said, only four horses have been purchased — the rest have been donated.
“You have to look at them like they’re your children. You have to work with them every day,” Howley said. “You need to put your hands over the entire animal. Like people, they could end up with a bump… you can find a tendon that might need attention… cuts, or any other scrapes or problems.”
Along with Howley, deputies Denise Frazier, Tyrell Patt, Brian Daly and Jason Tucciarone, as well as civilian coordinator Sue Fitton, take care of the horses.
“The horses are also a good icebreaker between the community and law enforcement,” Howley said. “It’s also a good way to get kids interested in law enforcement.”
Patt, who grew up in Pennsylvania around dairy cows, has an uncle who was a horse logger and used Belgian horses to pull logs out of the woods. “This is my way of still being involved with the animals, being a farmer and a police officer at the same time,” he said.
December will be five years with the PBSO’s Mounted Unit for Patt, who started as a police officer at 19 years old.
“The best part is dealing with these guys,” Patt said. “They’re a great joy to be around. I think we’re a great positive asset to the sheriff’s office as well as the community. We have a lot more citizen contacts than the regular road patrol unit… People come running out because they want to say hi. They probably don’t want to say hi to me; they want to say hi to the horses.”
Patt has often asked people if they would come running out to greet a PBSO deputy driving by, and they often say they wouldn’t. But for the horses, they come running.
Frazier has been with the Mounted Unit for a decade. She had quarter horses and ponies as a child. She worked in the jail and the road patrol for five years each, and then moved to the Mounted Unit. “We have some really good horses,” she said. “I love all of them.”
When the horses retire, many have been brought to the Retirement Home for Horses at Mill Creek Farm in Alachua.
The PBSO Mounted Unit can frequently be found at special events and patrolling around the community and Okeeheelee Park. Camps and schools often come to visit and learn about the unit. Coming up on July 8, the Mounted Unit will be visiting the PBSO’s Harmony in the Streets at 1 p.m. at Lake Worth Village (4799 Marks Way, Lake Worth).
ABOVE: Sgt. John Howley with Dakota, a Belgian draft mare.
Absolutely love seeing this PBSO unit patrol throughout Wellington!
Everyone does a double take when they see them patrolling in the planned unit developments of Wellington. The horses and their riders do command respect.
Let’s keep the Mounted Police Unit in Okeeheelee Park. A Charter Review member mentioned taking the Wellington public people park-ballfield- on South Shore near the fire station (in the Equestrian Preserve) for the Mounted Unit.
No, to that. Let the public use the land, not the horses. Stop proposing taking the people of Wellington park land for horse use and squeezing out the regular residents of Wellington ability to use these parks.
It’s happening on Kpark and the 10 acre Village Green Park (low Income, or the politically correct term, ‘affordable’ housing). What it means is more building instead of open space!
Land is at a premium in Wellington. It’s being eaten up with buildings and hard surfaces. This current Council likes to take parkland and build, build, build.
Let’s hold on to our current public parkland and not turn it over to special groups to preserve their way of life, while squeezing and reducing the rest of Wellington residents.
Let’s increase park land in Wellington. We should be adding, not balancing out parkland.
This current Council is the….. ‘we’ ll build on this park land(10 Village Green Park by Hampton Inn) and then take part of Kpark land for what we’re losing’ in open space’. The Council is not adding park land they’re trading land.
In March, Vote for Council candidates who want to keep open land……..open. Do not vote for people who are advocating for building on park land and trading that spot for another piece of land. It’s time to add land.