I'm on lunch break from work, walking to the campus bookstore for my daily Cafe Americano. I'm tired and a little crabby. It's bitter cold. Eager to get into the store, I'm running with my head down. Then I hear...
Clip clop clip clop.
I'm at WORK, I think. What the heck is this? Is my mind playing tricks? No. It's hooves on macadam.
The Bethlehem Mounted Police (BMP) are now patrolling the Bethlehem South Side, around campus.
Suddenly I'm a kid, and my heart flipflops with joy. The urge to run over and pet this horse's big fuzzy head is overwhelming. Instead I watch them walk past, waving and grinning.
When I go back to work, I look up the BMP Facebook page and learn the horses' names: George, Raven, and Pharaoh. There's a great picture of them. I want that picture on my office door. This is a campus safety thing, I think. Work related. I download a picture of the mounted patrol and print it on the color printer in the Director's office -- something I have never, ever done. When I go to retrieve it, the CEO of my division is at the printer, and he is looking quizzically at the printout. I explain I just saw one of them. They're here, on campus. We have a discussion of their role in campus safety. The CEO looks a little puzzed but smiles. Sigh of relief.
The little poster above is on my office door.
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So cool! I betcha they are Standardbreds!!!! ;-D
ReplyDeleteWhat beauties. I know that feeling...pitter pat heartbeat that somehow syncs up with the sound of those hoofbeats.
ReplyDeleteRutgers University here in NJ has a mounted patrol as well. Seems to be a great addition to the campus security force. It's really something special to know horses are a valued part of the school like that.
How fun!! What a welcome distraction, and glad you didn't get in trouble at the printer =)
ReplyDeletethat is so cute.
ReplyDeleteI work for a university as well. Wish we could have a mounted patrol!! but our police officers get by with bikes, cars, SUVs, and Segways.
You're funny! And incurable! And I am sure I would react the same way! There is something so special about horses; I can't imagine life without them!!!
ReplyDeleteApparently you're not the only person who grins and waves....
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lehighvalleylive.com/bethlehem/index.ssf/2010/12/bethlehems_mounted_unit_brings.html
I'm hoping to see the mounted officers next time I go into Bethlehem so that I can do the same!
I have two horses, I work with horses every day, and I've even lived in the barn above horses a few times... And I still get excited whenever I see horses, especially if it's a non-horsey setting. (Ask me about the time I found the Anheuser-Busch stables in the middle of Sea World!) I still have to crane my neck if I pass by a field with a four-board fence, to see if it holds horses and what kind. :)
ReplyDelete@Jean -- The Rutgers horses (or at least some of them!) are Standardbreds, and came from the same program as my boys! One of my friends was on the patrol before she graduated last year.
My heroes!
ReplyDeleteThat would brighten my mood as well. Glad you could work the poster into your work enviroment too. That should make the "grind" easier too. LOL
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I'm not the only one who turns into an excited kid when I hear clip clop in an unexpected place!
ReplyDeleteWhat a treat. They're beautiful, and I love a world with mounted police.
I would have done exactly that: printed out the poster on the CEO's *personal* computer if I had to. Luckily, you had a work one!
Good for you, Stacey! The clip-clop of hooves never fails to make ME pay attention, either! Ever since I was a little girl... "Where are the HORSES?!??"
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