Indication of Horse in Pain Dismaying

I was dismayed by the picture (Dec.8) that showed the Long Beach Mounted Police officers riding palominos with fancy silver saddles and carrying the U.S. flag. All very nice and pretty, but the whole thing is marred because someone saw fit to use a picture showing the officer in the lead jerking his horse in the mouth so hard that the horse has raised its head way up in the air and has opened its mouth wide as it tries to escape the pain. I see that someone has also put a tie-down strap on this horse in an attempt to force the horse to lower its head and accept the pain from the yanking of the reins that cause it to raise its head in the first place.

Surely the photographer could have found a better example of the horsemanship of the Long Beach Mounted Police than this picture shows. Look at the other horses in the background; they all seem to be calm and obedient. Perhaps this is just another example of someone’s confusing an elevated head and gaping mouth with “spirit.”

KRISTI HALE, Garden Grove