A miniature horse named Hunny B, who likes being in the center of attention and can be a bit mischievous, according to her handler, joined the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office this week — in the mounted patrol unit, of course.
The horse is the third miniature horse to join the force in the Denver suburb.
“Hunny B is just turning 3, so officially in the horse world, she's an adult. But that's also like we say an 18-year-old's an adult,” said owner Audra McNicholas. “She earned her badge, and she is officially out of training.”
The office announced its newest deputy on social media.
"We love these mini horses because they make community connections for us, and they bring joy to us every day,” said Sheriff Tyler Brown in the post.
What was a momentous day for the little white horse was a difficult one for McNicholas, founder and owner of McNicholas Miniature Therapy Horses.
Just hours after Hunny B got her badge, one of McNicholas’ other deputized miniature horses and her “heart horse,” Love Bug, died. She said it’s been devastating.
“Actually, Love Bug was dying in the hospital the day that Hunny B got her badge, and I realized there's a part of me that wonders if she was hanging on until she knew Hunny B was taking over,” McNicholas said.
Hunny B is trained as a therapy animal and does additional training in order to serve. The horses are exposed to things they might not normally see — like crowds and fireworks.
“They are being handled weekly,” McNicholas said. “We have to do either training or exposure to different things, whether it's road flares or helicopters or going over a bridge or, you know, something different like fireworks. The more that you train with them, the more that you expose them to, the more that nothing bothers them.”
McNicholas said horses are very similar to dogs and other animals. They all have their own personalities. Hunny B, although she’s official now, is still a bit of a baby.
“I think because we've had her since she was 6 months old, she wants to be right in the middle of everything,” McNicholas said. So when I'm giving one of the other minis a bath, she's popping her head in, she's like, ‘Hey, hey, is it my turn yet?’”
“She's slightly mischievous until she gets her vest on, and then she loves working,” she said.
The miniature horses go to festivals, hospitals, nursing homes, schools and even the National Western Stock Show. She said she had a connection to the sheriff’s office and would volunteer on the mounted patrol outings. That led to the introduction of the miniature therapy horses on the force.
“The sheriff's office was one of the very first that was like, ‘Hey, I think that's a great idea,’” McNicholas said.
A former Miss Rodeo Colorado, McNicholas said her therapy horses remove barriers, and it’s heartening to see.
“They love your heart and your mind,” she said. “They're so smart that they actually seek out people that need a little bit extra support and they can feel it long before I can see it.”
The Arapahoe County Sheriff said that Hunny B will join the office’s larger horses at community events and will visit schools for the Reading to Horses program. But McNicholas said Hunny B might have a different career in mind someday.
“We always giggle that when she grows up, she wants to be a unicorn,” she said.
