Name sought for new Mounted Patrol Unit member
By Maria Lindsay
SUMMIT COUNTY — The Summit County Sheriff’s Office Mounted Patrol Unit has a new member — a horse with no name.
The horse, a Belgian cross draft gelding weighing in at 1,600 pounds, stands 17.1 hands and was recently acquired by Steve Snyder, a detective with the Akron Police Department and a one-year member of the Mounted Patrol Unit.
Snyder wants to rename the 8-year-old Belgian and is looking for suggestions. “Horses easily adapt to a new name, often in as little as a week,” Snyder said.
“I felt his old name, Rex, was not quite suited to the job, and I wanted to give the public a hand in naming an animal that will be working for them,” he added.
Snyder said his previous horse, Hollywood, a 10-year-old Tennessee walker, was not temperamentally suited to the job and has been retired to enjoy a more leisurely life. He described his new horse, bought from an individual in West Virginia, as mild mannered and easy going, attentive and a quick learner. “He is a very big horse with a blond tail, a blond mane and big feet,” Snyder added.
Snyder is hoping to debut the newest member of the unit at the Coventry Bicentennial parade Sept. 30, which steps off from the clock tower at Portage Lakes Drive and Turkeyfoot Lake Road at 11 a.m. The gelding also will be on view in the pasture at his new home — Southgate Park in Green. The winner of the contest to name the horse will receive a gift certificate. The contest is open to anyone, but only one entry per person will be accepted.
Ideas for a name for the horse,
along with the name and age of the person submitting
the suggestion, are being accepted at the sheriff’s
Web site at www.scsomountedp
unit.org. The
winning name will be announced on the Web
site the week of Oct. 8, and the person who submitted
the name will be notified by e-mail.
Akron Police Detective Steve Snyder, pictured at left, is looking for help in renaming his horse, a Belgian cross draft.
Photo
courtesy of Summit
County Sheriff’s Office
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