Metro looking for new home for police’s mounted patrol unit

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - After 20 years, the city said it’s being forced to move the Metro Police Mounted Patrol horses out of the state-owned Ellington Agricultural Center.

Currently nine mounted patrol horses are kept there, but it’s all ending because of a new contract with the state.

Every few weeks, Carley Stiver brings little Ava to lay her eyes on the horses. A sight they will no longer see at the current location.

“I know that makes me so sad,” Stivers said.

“I was not surprised to hear the shock of it,” Metro Council Member Courtney Johnston said.

Johnston said she knows residents are concerned, but there’s a temporary plan.

“They are going to be housed at Percy Warner where the Steeplechase is,” Johnston said.

She said the stables where the horses stay is unstable. The paint chips away, the horses don’t have enough acreage, and the roof is beyond repair.

“That was going to cost well into the six figures,” Johnston said. “They also told us they were going to start charging us rent June the first of $15,000 a month, which we’ve never paid anything. It’s always been really helpful, actually.”

She said the city didn’t want to invest the money in a building it didn’t own. Metro Police said in two years they plan to build a new stable in a new location that hasn’t been decided upon.

“Brand new facility, brand new parking lot, brand new trails, brand new pastures,” Johnston said. “All of that. It’s going to be wonderful actually.”

Johnston said she doesn’t know what will happen to the stable, but she knows it’s not the place the community will miss, it’s the company.

Metro Police said the horses will be moved by July 1. They are looking at a site at Peeler Park in Madison for the permanent location.

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