Thursday, December 13, 2018

RPD Mounted Unit Leader, Rio, to Retire

December 13, 2018

The stables won’t be the same without the “Big Guy”.

Standing at 16.1 hands (5 feet, 5 inches tall), Rio, a brown-colored thoroughbred cross and natural-born leader of the Richmond Police Department Mounted Unit horses, is retiring.

The Department will celebrate Rio’s service to Richmond with a brief ceremony following the Blessing of the Animals which takes place noon on Friday, December 14, at the Morgan Fountain in Shockoe Slip. The blessing event is produced by the Friends of the Richmond Mounted Squad. The Department’s Mounted and K-9 units will participate. The public is invited to bring their leashed or caged pets to the event.

“We tend to forget the tremendous impact working animals provide to the safety of a city,” said Mounted Sergeant Jeremy Nierman. “This is a great event because it is important to acknowledge the vital assistance the horses and K-9s provide to Richmond – and no horse has done a more remarkable job than Rio.”

Normally a horse with the Department’s Mounted Unit provides eight to 10 years of service. Rio has been with the unit for over 12 years and has been a leader ever since his arrival from a farm in Amelia County when Rio was six years old.

“His calming presence has been a benefit to the other horses in the barn and in the field,” said Sergeant Nierman, “He is especially reassuring to new horses when they arrive. Rio can be a bit of a jerk to a rider at first…but once you bond with him there is no better mount with which to ride. I consider him family and will miss seeing him every day.”

This will be Rio’s final assignment before he retires to a farm in Chesterfield where he will join his former stable-mate from the RPD Mounted Unit, Beau.