Training Police Horses (1967)

Imber Court, Surrey. At the Metropolitan Police Mounted Branch School we see several shots of horses being trained. A man holds the rein of a horse as it runs round a circular ring; another horse is trained to walk sideways. A horse with a policeman on it’s back is fed while a man flutters a Union Jack flag around it’s head so the horse gains confidence in flag waving situations. Horses carrying policemen walk around a field through a kind of obstacle course of distractions; they walk through tunnels, between hanging flags, through smoke coming from a barrel, through some cardboard boxes being thrown in their path, past a small group of ’football supporters’ with rattles and crashing cymbals; the horse walks sideways to move them along. Horses walk up and over a small bridge; a policeman rides on his horse to pick up a tent peg on a long pole. Several shots show policemen on horses at a display (or rehearsal - no crowd shots) in Battersea Park. The horses perform a kind of formation dance to the