Incidents of runaway horses happen at least twice a month, according to Sergeant Major Francis Seychell, who is urging the public to approach such situations with caution.
Holding out a clump of grass to a bolted horse was the best way to calm the animal down until help arrived, he advised.
People should approach the animal slowly once it came to a halt, never approaching the animal from behind, Sgt Maj. Seychell said.
“Every horse reacts differently, so there is no common practice when it comes to calming these animals down,” he stressed in light of Tuesday’s incident when two horses escaped from pens in Birkirkara.
Sgt Maj. Seychell runs the mounted police division in Marsa and was one of the officers responsible for capturing the escaped horses.
“Such incidents are quite frequent and, luckily, in this case the horses didn’t suffer any major injuries and nobody was hurt.”
Hooting car horns and making sudden movements should be avoided as this could frighten the animal, causing it to run off or act dangerously.
Sgt Maj. Seychell described an incident that happened about a year ago, when a horse running between Siġġiewi and Luqa smashed into a car injuring the driver.
Tuesday’s call for help arrived in the early afternoon when the police control room informed him that two runaway horses were spotted, one headed for Santa Venera and the other the Qormi bypass.
The one near Santa Venera had been cornered by the police mobile squad. Linking up with mobile squad cars and with a horse trailer in tow, he informed the cars to turn off their sirens not to spook the animal.
Eventually, Sgt Maj. Seychell got to the second horse, which had been stopped by a man from Qormi when the animal had lost its steam.
Sgt Maj. Seychell could not say how the horses had escaped. Both horses were apprehended within 15 minutes of the police being informed of their escape.
While on patrol, the mounted police faced danger on a daily basis. Sgt Maj. Seychell noted, mentioning an incident, 13 years ago, when a car had run into three mounted police officers severely injuring one of the animals that needed about 200 stitches. Although such accidents are quite rare, the increasing traffic has become a cause for concern. This was partly the reason why special training was needed to prevent horses from panicking in crowded situations, Sgt Maj. Seychell said.
In a field in Marsa, the police horses are exposed to loud noises including fog horns and explosive sounds as flags and large objects are waved in front of them while their riders control them and calm them down.
This allowed the animals to feel more confident and led to better performance on the field.
At the moment, 19 horses are being used by 18 mounted policemen. The stable names all start with the letter R, as a tribute to Police Commissioner John Rizzo.
Aside from ceremonial duties, the mounted police perform regular patrols in Valletta and, occasionally, in Gozo.