Calming police horses with colourful markings
By exposing the police horses from Imber Court’s training centre, in Surrey, to colourful road markings in their daily surroundings, Geveko Markings hope to help the horses get accustomed to them when they come across them in traffic.
After recently seeing a video of a police horse reacting hesitantly to a colourful crossing in Sheffield, Andy Price, Application Specialist for Geveko Markings UK approached the Mounted Branch of the Metropolitan Police with an idea.
A misconception is that horses only see in black and white. They may not see colour the way we do, but they are not in fact ‘colour blind’. Therefore, the differing shades and patterns of a colourful crossing could suggest an obstacle in the road, causing a horse to shy from something that we, as humans do not see. This not only causes distress to the animal but also creates a possible risk to the public or motorists using the same section of road.
Imber Court in Surrey has been the home to police horses for over 100 years and currently houses over 50 horses - young and old, novice and experienced. The centre trains horses, riders, and other rescue services in animal handling and welfare. Andy spoke with Heather Driver at the Met Police and suggested that placing coloured markings, such as a cycle lane and a crossing at Imber Court would allow the horses stabled there to become familiar with the new colours and designs. In this way, when the horses saw them on the roads of London they would already be accustomed to them.
In March 2022 several team members from Geveko Markings went to the site to apply the markings, using PREMARK™ preformed and PlastiRoute™ MMA paint. The site was significantly transformed, and the new markings are already being used by the trainers: ‘It has certainly provided our trainers with a valuable tool to train our horses before encountering brightly coloured road markings in public,’ says Heather Driver of the Met Police, who looks forward to following the results of the markings closely.
At Geveko Markings, we hope that the markings will be beneficial in the training of the horses and are happy to see our markings be used in a place that is a little out of the ordinary – perhaps it can be an inspiration for others to also think a bit outside the box.
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Both a cycle lane and a colourful crossing were created in the stable yard using PlastiRoute™
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The horses can see the coloured markings from their stables.
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The team from Geveko Markings applied the markings so that horses could become familiar with them.
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The markings have now become an important part of the training of the horses stabled there.
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It is hoped that this will help the horses to not become startled on the roads to avoid accidents occurring.
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