is this animal cruelty from the police?

[primarynoodle]

aibu to think rush hour on arguably the busiest road out of manchester city centre AND on the busiest bus route in europe is NOT the right moment to be riding a police horse down it?!

I think there is a massive difference between trotting a horse down a country lane and on a hugely busy road at the busiest time! poor horse looked terrified!

Yabu....how does a horse look terrified anyway?!

Er, surely police horses are trained to deal with riots and stuff like football hooliganism? If they can't cope with a bit of traffic they are no use at all.

Riiight

Ach the horse will have been fine

Police horses are trained to deal with riots - I doubt a bit of traffic will faze it much. So.....yes, YABU.

flicking its head about... ive spent a fair amount of time around horses (not any kind of expert) and only see them doig that when they are a bit stressed out...

I totally agree about riots etc but there was no need for the horse to be on the road at that time!

ok fair enough about horses welfare then but its holding up sooo much traffic.. maybe its just me!

How do you know there was no need for the horse to be on the road at that time? Did you ask?

why would there be need?

Police horses are trained for riots (think london) and football matches. They can handle traffic.

Maybe they were training it to cope with traffic in case it is needed in a traffic heavy situation, or even just a loud one? It's not cruel really.

It could be part of its training regime.

My horse flicks it's head about for various reasons, hair in its eyes, getting annoyed with its bit, general impatient ness, excited, annoyed by a fly following it etc etc

Who knows.... But they won't be running it past you first op.... What they do and why is up to them

It may have been in training
Going somewhere
On it's way back from somewhere

Or maybe the police thought ' we are bored, not enough work to do, let's take a horse out and see if we can terrify it'

fair enough iwbu!

Holding up traffic?

A prime example of a car driver being annoyed by other road users who have every right to be there. Roads were orignially built for horses and carts you know? Most people can cope with the odd horse, hearse, pony and trap, cyclist holding up traffic.

yabu, and if that's all you have to worry about in life then you need to get out more.

Horses have to be trained to deal with all different situations including heavy traffic!

YABU

Yabu, but Lally no need to be so snippy!

Holy smoke Lally , are you hungry? do you need a snickers!?

It was probably part of it's training, if a horse trusts its rider then a thousand lorries can fly past and the horse will know its going to be fine because its rider tells him so

Assuming you are talking about the Oxford Road corridor, it's busy but it's not that high a speed limit (I don't think it gets above 30?). So I can't see the cars zooming by.

Which section?

calm your shit lally it was a mix of lighthearted knackeredness after a long day at work and genuine question of surely this is cruel... apparently it is not

I am not a twat - I too have police in the family but unlike some do not think this gives me the right to slate those who question some things the police do.