I think they should ride elephants instead. That be REALLY intimidating.

One of the craziest NYC moments I ever had was seeing a woman get tossed from a horse in Central Park. I was walking North of where the Hecksher Playground is, and this woman in the full dominatrix riding gear comes flying down the path at full gallop. I'm pretty certain horses aren't allowed here. The horse hits a divit and the front legs buckle. The woman flies out of the saddle like she was shot out of a cannon and lands directly on her head. The horse bolts into the park. My friend and I run up, and she's breathing but completely out cold. I decide to run out to a payphone or find a cop. Then some other people on horses rolled up and immediately, and paramedics were there like a minute later.

The good news is that the horse wasn't hurt and was able to find his way back to the stable on Varick.

Being as another rookie cop just got cuffed for rape, wouldn't you rather have a mounted cop and not a mounting cop?

As explanation for the cranially-challenged dude in question: thirty-two comments late to the party, and I still summon the stupidity to be first to offer "The Headless Horseman"? DOUBLE groan.

Mounted police are used for a variety of reasons, yes people are afraid of horses, but many really like them so they are calmer and less likely to freak out, You are also a good 5-7 feet in the air much better sight lines for crowd control and that is the main reason they are still used.

Horses for the NYPD are trained for close to two years before they are put in the field. They get more training reguarly and are picked from horses bred to be calm. They are truly the progeny of the war horse not the same as a trail horse or carriage horse.

i was walking toward the corner of sixth and broome today when I watched the runaway horse plow right into a moving car. The car's windows exploded in glass and the entire side of the car was smashed in. The stunned horse ran around erratically for a moment (i hid behind a bike rack -- yes, was scared shitless), then continued down sixth, apparently back to the stable. It was shocking, I hope that horse will be okay and it was enough to make me think that, um, maybe horses don't belong in manhattan?

buck the police

The artifacting does in fact resemble a multi-second exposure, even if it wasn't. AutoStitch is not a Photoshop plug-in or function and is not PS related at all. The real original is here as well as several other shots in his photostream, which should put to rest all the people screaming "It's a fake!" The question is why Rob J. sent the AutoStitched version to Gothamist rather than the original.

The guy posted the full photo on Flickr.

It's in a set called NYC Autostitch. You can click on the option to see the uncropped full-size original. So it looks like he took a lot of photos of the scene and used Photoshop's (or another Photo editor's) auto-stitch feature to combine the photos together automatically. So that caused the weirdness and missing heads -- not a long exposure, not the guy's reflection in the glass. Just bad Photoshop work.

it may be a long exposure, but it's strange that everything else is so sharp. maybe the camera was pressed against the glass? Even so, there should be more movement from the people in the photo.

that's not photoshopped. it almost looks double-exposed, it it weren't digital. maybe some sort of weirdness with a longer-than-normal exposure.

Wow. Looks like a lot of people commenting here have never held a camera in their lives. The blurriness and missing body parts are caused by a long exposure. Anything that's moving will be blurred or disappear altogether. If it moves then stops or vice versa during the exposure, you get a relatively sharp object plus ghosting. I wouldn't be surprised at a long exposure if it was done at a long focal length through the tinted glass of an office window. Guys, step away from the computer and go into the real world. Digital cameras are dirt cheap nowadays and you might actually learn something.

A Mountie cop once told me that horses work great for crowd control because many people are scared shitless of them. the only problem a horse to be able to function in NYC has got to be pretty lobotomized or way old in the tooth.

#22 IT IS USELESS. They are convinced they are right.

#19, that is some strong language you use to describe fellow gothamist members, and I naively want to think it is not a bad word in your language, maybe your mom called you that, whatever.

it's not a photoshop you idiots, you can see the reflection of the photographer in the photo. duh.

I was wondering why rite aid is having a sale on glue.

As much shit as I give cops, the mounted unit is one I definitely respect. They go through some pretty rigorous training, and not every cop who enters the program passes.

They certainly have presence, and you can't discount the thrill people get from seeing them and being alowwed to pet them(the horses).

If you don't think this photo has been Photoshopped, then you are a moron. I know that Gothamist isn't a "news" site, but c'mon this photo has been so obviously (and poorly) doctored. I'm not sure why Rob J. would even bother with crap like this.

Seriously, though, where's the guy's head?