In small towns and large cities, people admire police horses. Even in the roughest neighborhoods, mounted officers on horseback are easily approachable. “Nobody wants to pet a patrol car,” says Jim Barrett, a retired police officer who worked as a captain in the Ventura County (California) Sheriff's Department. He worked as a police officer for 30 years, and for 20 of those years had the pleasure of being in the mounted unit. He now works as a manager at Police Horse Pros, LLC, a company that trains horses and riders for police work.

“The key to training horses is to desensitize them to a variety of stimulation,” he says. “Horses don't like loud noises. The training involves getting them used to different sounds and a variety of obstacles. We may have horses walking through an area filled with plastic bottles because when they are working, they are exposed to all sorts of situations.”

Equally important to training horses is to train the riders. According to Barrett, you must be a horse person to join a mounted unit. “And you must do your time in a regular unit before applying to a mounted one. Salary depends on where you live and on your level of experience. You aren't going to get rich, but you will be comfortable. Besides, you get to work with horses.”