Officer Guy Serving Maryland & DC for 19 Years
by Katherine O. Rizzo Janet Pflaum of La Plata and her daugh-
ter Amie had just gotten back from Virginia Equine Imaging where they had received some disappointing news about their seven-year-old Oldenburg gelding Grand Adventure. “Guy” had been Amie’s Pony Club mount for three years and was having soundness issues. Te scans from VEI revealed low-grade micro fractures in both his hocks and the recommenda- tion from Dr. Kent Allen and VEI was that Guy should be retired from jumping. “If Amie had wanted to do
just dressage, we would have kept Guy,” Pflaum said. “It was best for him to not jump anymore and we wanted to do right by him.” While flipping through the April 2000 issue of Te Equiery, Pflaum spot- ted an ad from the Maryland- National Capital Park Police, Montgomery County Division, Special Opera- tions Section, in search of new police horses. “Te ad said they were looking for geldings
that were 16 hands or higher and at least four years old,” Pflaum remembered. “It went on to say that a horse with basic training was preferred but not necessary. I called right away and spoke with Officer Rick Pelicano.” Nineteen years later, a happy and sound Guy officially retired from the police force.
A Pony Club Beginning Guy joined the Pflaum family in 1997 when he was just four years old. A regis- tered Oldenburg, Guy was Amie’s first horse after graduating from ponies. “He has a huge personality and we learned quickly that he could be quirky,” Pflaum explained that Guy sometimes just took off across the fields. Amie and Guy eventually formed a partnership and competed in many Pony Club rallies as members of De La Brooke Pony Club. Tey showed in classical dres- sage through Potomac Valley Dressage As-
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sociation. “Amie was a C2 and they competed together pri- marily in dressage and show jumping in Maryland, Penn- sylvania and Virginia,” Pflaum added. Amie was also young at the time and Pflaum said they learned a great deal from each
other. “Amie’s early love of horses helped in- fluence her future,” Pflaum said. Amie enlisted in the U.S. Army, attending ROTC at Wake Forest University before heading abroad on various tours of duty. “Currently she is a fourth year veterinary student at North Carolina State University. Upon gradu- ation next May, she will finish her career in the U.S. Army as a doctor in the Veterinary Corps.”
Becoming a Police Horse
De La Brooke Pony Clubber Amie Pflaum owned Guy before donat- ing him to M-NCPPC.
Guy was first accepted into the M-NCPPC special mounted unit on a 60-day trial. During the trial the then head training officer Captain (retired) Rick Pelicano worked with Guy in ring exercises,
teaching him patrol skills, and basic
obstacle work. His initial report showed that Guy excelled in the equitation skills but was very afraid of flares, smoke and fireworks. With that in mind, the Unit decided to take Guy on and teach him the ropes of being a
police horse. Guy quickly found his stride and settled into police horse life. “He really is a happy-go-lucky type of horse,” said Corporal Megan Lau. Lau had just started with the unit around the same time as Guy’s donation and is now the Unit’s lead mounted training offi- cer for horses and riders. “He’s so laid back but walks on a mission,” she added. Over the next 19 years, Guy became the “go
to” horse for new riders and new horses. “His greatest value is that he is the steadiest horse in the Unit and a great baby sitter to people and other horses,” Lau said. Tis steadiness is what made Guy such a perfect police mount.
On Patrol Te initial spookiness around flares and smoke
turned out to only be an issue during training sessions at the barn. “Anything in ‘his’ ring that shouldn’t be there is not cool with Guy,” said M- NCPPC barn manager Heather Dunkin. “But out on the roads, he is just fine with all of it.” Guy served the Unit in all aspects of a police
horse. He would go to downtown Silver Spring, patrol the Lake Forest Mall parking lot during the holidays, and was effective at crowd con- trol after University of Maryland College Park football games. “One of his bigger missions downtown in DC was during the McPherson Square occupancy,” said Pelicano. “Tere was a lot of commotion but Guy basically fell asleep while standing at his post.” Guy’s ability to stand perfectly still, relaxed and with ears practically flopping caused many officers in the Unit to joke that he was narcoleptic. “You’d park him and he’d fall asleep,” said Pelicano. Guy also worked every Presidential Inaugura- tion during his time with the Unit and attended continued...
Excelling at all aspects of police horse work from patrolling parks, to crowd control, to commu- nity outreach, is what made Guy such a special part of M-NCPPC’s mounted unit.
JUNE 2019 | THE EQUIERY | 13
Katherine O. Rizzo
courtsey of M-NCPPC
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