There were no long faces Friday, as the Calgary police saddled up its latest mounted unit graduate.

Gladius, a five-year-old thoroughbred Percheron Clydesdale cross from the Alberta village of Andrew, received his badge during a ceremony Friday at Garrison Square Park in southwest Calgary.

Gladius joins the Mounted Unit to make a total of six active Police Service Horses (PSH). Each horse in the unit is named after peacekeeping missions or battles fought by Canadian soldiers. The CPS Mounted Unit began in 2016, naming their horses in honour of our veterans. The six horses’ names are Dieppe, Normandy, Anzio, Ortona, Kapyong and of course Gladius. Gladius is also the tallest horse of the unit standing at 17.2 hands-high.

Gladius was presented with a badge that honours and resembles Canadian peacekeepers in the Golan Heights, Canada’s long-standing peacekeeping role in the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).

In 1910, the first CPS Mounted Unit was started and went on until the Second World War started in 1939. The unit was later picked up again in 1979.

Choosing horses with the right demeanour

“So, you want to get horses that are going to be OK, like in an urban environment. This is obviously the type of horse that you would need to have a very steady demeanour. When you get into an urban environment like that, there’s all kinds of noises and stuff like that…So probably demeanour is number one,” said Chief Constable Mark Neufeld of the Calgary Police Service.

PSH Gladius has already been part of different deployments with the CPS Mounted Unit, that includes crowd management, CTrain and downtown patrols, and public relations events.

“I think they’re probably the most photographed police service members in the city in the summertime when you have visitors and that type of thing,” said Neufeld.

The Mounted Unit plays a significant role when it comes to crime management in certain situations, according to CPS Mounted Unit supervisor, Robin Koltusky. Since the officers are on horseback, this allows for a higher perspective of their surroundings as well as access to areas that are not very accessible by vehicle or foot. Some of these areas include riverbanks or parks, where offenders evading police, discarded evidence or missing personnel may be located.

The horses are introduced to the service from a young age. The younger the age of the horse, the better they will be able to adapt to the desired surroundings, Koltusky said.

“For the first year, he’s (Gladius) just introduced to stimuli, audio and visual, sensory, just to get a foundation built up, and so, in that way, he accepts the city…So the younger we get them, the more successful they are, the more promising they are,” said Koltusky.

Gladius, along with the other PSH’s typically work between four-to-six-hour workdays and are assigned to certain calls just like any other officer.

Gladius is expected to patrol as a PSH for the next 15 years until he is about 20 years old.

“He’s exceptionally kind. He really doesn’t have a mean bone in his body at all, He’s extremely willing. He’s taken every training session like a champ,” said Koltusky.