See how Asbury University gets horses ready to service police departments all over the country

WILMORE, Ky. (WTVQ) — The horse industry in Lexington has had most of its eyes on the fall meet at Keeneland recently. But here in Wilmore, at Asbury University, their attention has been on 16 newly imported weanlings brought here to join the police horse training program — which has recently become one of the premier programs in the country.

“You start off and you try to survive, and then you try to become stable, then you try to become successful. Then you want to become the standard. So we want to have something that is passable for generations,” said Equine Director Harold Rainwater.

The program has sold service-ready police horses to departments all over the country. Rainwater walked us through the process.

“They’ll start in a weanling program for that semester. They’ll turn back out for the summer and be horses again. Then in the fall, they’ll come back in in another class. So sequentially they go through a class every semester until they are 4 years old,” he added.

Kelsey Anderson, a senior in the program this year, has seen the program grow while being part of it.

“It’s so cool seeing how much the program has grown through just these few years that I have been here. I mean it’s grown so much,” Anderson said.

Anderson was paired with her trainee, Lexington, when he was a yearling. She trained him all the way through the program. He’s now in service in the Bethlehem Pennsylvania Police Department under the new name Star.

Police departments all around the country come to Asbury to get their horses. At this point, the only horses available to claim for the future are these recently arrived weanlings.

“We had a department, Columbus, Ohio, call yesterday, want to come and look and they asked when we would have a horse ready. I said well our 3-year-olds are sold, our 2-year-olds are sold, and most of our 1-year-olds are sold. So you better come quickly,” Rainwater said.