Metropolitan Police Mounted Branch

The Bow Street Horse Patrol was formed in 1763, but ceased after eighteen months when funding ran out.

[2] Figures released by the Met under a Freedom of Information Act request showed that the annual number of police horses in the MPS Mounted Branch Unit in calendar years 2009 to 2018 ranged from a low of 100 to a high of 116.

[5][6][7] A 2014 RAND Europe/University of Oxford Centre for Criminology study found: "While mounted police in the UK are traditionally thought of as public-order policing resources, deployment data show that they spend between 60-70 per cent of their time in local area patrols, and 10-20 per cent of their time in public order work, with the remainder spent in activities such as ceremonial deployments.

"[6] A typical daily patrol is 9–10 miles (14–16 km), but a police horse escort of the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery from its St John's Wood barracks to central London is 16 miles (26 km).

[7] The Branch has eight stables:[7][8] Hyde Park,[5][8] Lewisham Police Station,[8][9] Great Scotland Yard,[8] Hammersmith,[8] West Hampstead,[8] Bow Road,[8] Kings Cross,[8] and Imber Court in East Molesey, Surrey.