Youngsters enjoy horsing around with police friend

Youngsters at the Rother Valley Day Nursery had a surprise visit from two police horses who needed help.

Conker, one of the horses, was in his final week of police training and as part of his final assessment he needed to be around children so his reactions could be monitored.

The nursery based at Rotherham College’s Dinnington campus, cares for children aged between six months and five years and provided the perfect environment for Conker to be watched around young children.

Sally Huffen, childcare services manager at the nursery said: “We have previously had the police sniffer dogs in to show demonstrations to the children and so it is fantastic to have the horses involved too.”

“It just shows the little ones how intelligent these animals are and in comparison to their size, just how gentle they are.”

The toddlers were asked to do a number of noisy tasks to perform around Conker to test his abilities.

After a number of jumps, shouts and claps, Conker seemed unnerved by the whole experience.

PC Alison Aker who was riding Conker said: “We were requested to visit the day nursery and give a talk to the children so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to use it as a training exercise for Conker too.”

“After the visit concluded, we then patrolled Dinnington and the surrounding area for the remainder of the shift.”

“I am please to say that Conker did pass his assessments and is now officially known as Maltby.”