Ljubljana mounted police celebrate golden jubilee
Slovenia has two mounted police units and the older one, in Ljubljana, is marking its 50th anniversary this year. They celebrated the jubilee on 9 October with a show at the Lipica stud farm, home to six of the unit's 13 horses currently.
Mounted police are an important part of the security apparatus and they are deployed wherever their presence is essential to providing security, the unit's commander Janez Podobnik said.
He singled out public rallies as high-risk events where mounted police are deployed to prevent rioting and mass violations of public law and order. Mounted police also participate in search and rescue operations and border control.
The horses for the unit are selected based on character and after they retire from active service they are either sold, put into care, or, most commonly, entrusted to the attending officer, who takes care of the horse until its death.
The Ljubljana unit currently comprises 14 officers and 13 horses. The majority of the horses are Slovenian warmbloods but six of them are Lipizzaners, a native Slovenian breed.
As Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar noted, Lipizzaner horses are very useful because they are very agile and regenerate quickly.
Slovenia's first mounted police were established in 1920 but were discontinued in 1958 before being revived in Ljubljana in 1974. In Maribor, the unit was launched in 1992.
Ljubljana's has its stables in Stožice on the northern outskirts of the capital city, which is also home to a hippodrome. Officers tend to the horses themselves, both during the day and at night.
