Charleston Police Horse “Doc Valentine” Retires

Going to greener pastures
Doc’s Valentine to retire to quiet life on Ravenel farm after 14 years patrolling city

By David Slade (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Friday, July 25, 2008

Wade Spees
The Post and Courier

Charleston City Police officer Susan Strobel visits Doc’s Valentine, the horse she was assigned to as part of the department’s mounted patrol, at the stable Wednesday. Doc, as the horse is known in the department, will soon be retired from the police force.

 

Doc’s Valentine has patrolled the streets of Charleston for nearly 14 years, working some of the toughest neighborhoods in the city.

Now, he’s getting ready to retire to a quiet life on a farm in Ravenel, where Officer Susan Strobel hopes to visit him. Doc, as he’s known in the Charleston Police Department stables, is the latest horse to be retired from the city’s mounted patrol.

When police horses end their working lives, they can’t just go home with their officer partners, the way police dogs often do, so the department looks for suitable people with the land and the financial resources to care for the animals.

Official department policy, which is in the process of being changed, says that police animals should be sold to the highest bidder, like used police cars and office equipment. In practice, the dogs and horses have always been adopted out when they are too old to work, police officials said.

“The horses are like the officers’ partners,” said Master Patrol Officer Ed Davis, supervisor of the horse patrol. “It’s not like a car.”

Doc was born on Valentine’s Day in 1985, sired by a horse named Doc, which is how he got the name Doc’s Valentine.

At 23, he’s an elder in the police stables, on the high side of retirement age, and he just had abdominal surgery.

Strobel patrolled atop Doc for the past six years and visited him several times a week when he was recovering from his surgery.

“Horses are really creatures of habit,” she said. “It was good for him to see a familiar face.”

They used to patrol the East Side together. Once, they were sent out of state to help another city keep order at a Mardi Gras celebration.

Now, Doc will be put out to pasture, like other police horses before him.

“He’s done his time,” Strobel said. “I’m excited for him.”

Reach David Slade at 937-5552 or dslade@postandcourier.com.

article from: http://charleston.net/news/2008/jul/25/going_greener_pastures48654/

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