18-Year LAPD Veteran Horse Takes On New Career To Help People With Disabilities

LA CAÑADA FLINTRIDGE (CBSLA.com) — An LAPD mounted horse is retiring after 18 years of service to the department, but he's not quite being put out to pasture just yet.

Cowboy, the second horse that the department has recently retired, has had quite the LAPD career.

"They weren't intended to go out on Sixth and Broadway and working traffic and do those kinds of jobs – it takes a special horse," police officer and head trainer Joe Willey said.

The 18-year veteran has literally carried officers through high crime areas in Venice Beach, Hollywood and Skid Row, and Willey says the officers weren't always the ones holding the reins. Cowboy was also consistently chosen to work with new recruits.

"They don't know how to ride – they're just good policemen. So we run them through our own school, and so you need good horses, what you call a school horse, to be able to kind of like tolerate a person who doesn't really know what they're doing," Willey said.

The horse has also served several times in the protection details of visiting U.S. presidents. But he has recently gotten too old for such assignments.

But just as human retirement from the LAPD usually means an opportunity to do something new, Cowboy will be starting a new job working with children and young adults with learning and physical disabilities.

"They bring a lot of courage to our kids, especially knowing where they've come from and what they've done," Joy Rittenhouse with Move A Child Higher said.

It's a fitting second career for Cowboy.

"He'll get doted on and the kids'll take care of him. They'll primp on him and groom him and brush him and offer him treats, and that's what he deserves," Willey said.