Whitman County Sheriff's Posse train horses

COLFAX - The Whitman County Sheriff's Posse (WCSP) met Saturday, Jan.. 7 at the fairgrounds with their horses for a de-spook training.

Member of the WCSP, Angie Senter explained that a de-spooking training is to keep the horses safe, "they're going to be super safe around things like loud noises," she said, adding that it also includes all the things that horses don't like.

The training consisted of acclimating horses to sights, sounds, and smells that would be associated with emergency response equipment.

"This type of training helps us to keep our horses, ourselves and the public safe when we are called to assist in search and rescue, emergency response, and security situation," Senter said, adding that the group is made up of volunteers. All members bring provide their own horses and equipment.

Captain of the WCSP, Deputy Jim Pellissier brought a Sheriffs car in the arena to show the horses the lights and sirens. The Posse also road around road flares and smoke bombs.

The WCSP rides every Saturday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the fairgrounds when the arena is open, Senter explained.

Senter further explained that the posse does several things including security for community concerts, parades, and parking at the fair. For doing the parking, the fair allows them to train their horses in the arena, "we do a different topic of training every Saturday," she said, noting that sometimes training just consists of exercising the horses.

"We do a lot of parade training on weekends," Senter said.

The Posse has not been out on a call in the last couple years, but is looking into doing security extra patrol, having been security at the fair concert the last few years. WCSP also did security for Colfax Chamber of Commerce Caps and Corks event last summer, "Organizations would have to have paid for police security support," Senter said, "we're able to just go in and do that for them."