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Speaker 1: I'm certainly doing it very differently this morning because I'm

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Speaker 1: actually broadcasting live right now from outside Northern Territory Broadcasters on.

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Speaker 2: The Police Force.

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Speaker 1: So it's a it's an all new world for me today.

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Speaker 1: And joining me out here, well, I've got the Northern

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Speaker 1: Territory Mounted Unit, Sergeant Ryan Watkinson, and I'm also joined

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Speaker 1: with the horses Blaze and Jacko and the wonderful Camille

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Speaker 1: as well.

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Speaker 3: But good morning to you Ryan, Good morning, Caddy, morning

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Speaker 3: your listeners.

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Speaker 1: Mate. This has to be I think you'd have to

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Speaker 1: have one of the best jobs in the police force,

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Speaker 1: wouldn't you.

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Speaker 3: It's certainly better than working for a living here, we

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Speaker 3: don't mind it.

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Speaker 1: Now, tell me about some of the work that you

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Speaker 1: do with these amazing, amazing creatures.

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Speaker 2: So we we're quite varied in what we do.

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Speaker 3: We'll do anything from search and rescues to social order patrols,

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Speaker 3: a lot of pr sort of stuff, ceremonial work and

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Speaker 3: the like. But yeah, a bit of everything, basically pleasing

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Speaker 3: from horseback.

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Speaker 1: In terms of like a search and rescue, how's the

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Speaker 1: Mounted Unit involved in something like that?

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Speaker 3: Basically involved in the actual search. So in the search

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Speaker 3: and rescue tope scenario will utilize motorbike cassettes and different

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Speaker 3: sort of things where most of your attentions sort of

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Speaker 3: spent trying to stay on the actual motorbike. With the

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Speaker 3: actual horses, they just they do the work. They'll walk

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Speaker 3: along and from a bit more of an elevated position,

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Speaker 3: we can see what's going on and sort of look

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Speaker 3: for what we need.

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Speaker 1: To mate elevated position. This is the tallest I've ever

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Speaker 1: felt my life.

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Speaker 2: You're looking good up there. I feel good up here.

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Speaker 1: Now tell me like a day in the life of

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Speaker 1: the Mounted police Unit. What's it like?

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Speaker 3: Starts We kick off about seven and normally bring the

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Speaker 3: horses in, take care of the feeding, husbandry sort of stuff,

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Speaker 3: and once we've done that bit of grooming and out

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Speaker 3: for patrol for the day.

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Speaker 1: They are amazing horses. I mean Jacko and Blaze is

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Speaker 1: who we've got here. How old are the horses and

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Speaker 1: what kind of training has to go into sort of

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Speaker 1: getting them operational.

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Speaker 2: So Jacko and Blaze are two of our new horses.

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Speaker 3: So Jacko's probably about three months in and Blaze is

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Speaker 3: around that six month mark. So they're both local territory

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Speaker 3: horses from local cattle stations. In relation to their training,

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Speaker 3: we do a lot of what's called nuisance training, so

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Speaker 3: you know, waving flags, tarps, making them walk over different stuff.

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Speaker 2: But a lot of it's sort of what you might

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Speaker 2: call on the job training.

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Speaker 3: So we'll take them out, walk them through the city,

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Speaker 3: different things, and just ease them into it slowly.

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Speaker 2: But they're both going really well.

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Speaker 1: And so how long do they how long do they

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Speaker 1: have to train for before you kind of before you

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Speaker 1: can get out and about with them like you're doing today.

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Speaker 3: It depends on the horse and the horse's temperament personality.

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Speaker 2: These two particular horses are picking it.

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Speaker 3: Up really quickly, so I think they'd be fully signed

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Speaker 3: off very shortly.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, right now in terms of that temperament and what

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Speaker 1: you're looking for, like how long do you kind of

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Speaker 1: have to search I suppose to be able to make

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Speaker 1: sure that you've got the right kind of horse.

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Speaker 2: Again, ed varies.

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Speaker 3: So these two actually came from the shout out to

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Speaker 3: the public for information on horses. We've got a lot

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Speaker 3: of inquiries relation to that. I think they did that

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Speaker 3: come through.

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Speaker 1: You, maybe me, maybe, So what did you do? You

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Speaker 1: just did a shout out to the public, Hey, we're

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Speaker 1: looking for a couple of police horses.

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Speaker 2: More or less.

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Speaker 3: I think it was on Facebook and a few other

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Speaker 3: sort of media sources.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so we've got contacted.

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Speaker 3: We're in a bit of a rebuilding phase at the moment,

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Speaker 3: looking for some other horses. But what we need is

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Speaker 3: probably not readily available in the territory after those sort

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Speaker 3: of bigger, more heavy horses now, so we'll be looking

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Speaker 3: down south for those. Once they're sort of identified, we'll

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Speaker 3: have a look at them, make sure they've got that

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Speaker 3: right temperament and the potential to be a police source.

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Speaker 2: And then yeah, from there it moves on.

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Speaker 1: Amazing stuff. How important is it that you've got a

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Speaker 1: you know, a good relationship with the horse that you're

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Speaker 1: on as well?

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Speaker 3: Obviously it's important you've got the horse has to trust

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Speaker 3: us and we have to trust the horse. You get

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Speaker 3: in some pretty hairy situations with them, but again that

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Speaker 3: just comes down to picking the right horse and the

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Speaker 3: right people to ride them as well.

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Speaker 1: Well, I'll tell you what, once I finish in radio,

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Speaker 1: maybe this is it for me joining the mounted unit.

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Speaker 2: I reckon for one spot for you, reckon, you'll be right.

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Speaker 1: Oh, it is so great to have a chat with

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Speaker 1: you this morning. The Territories Mounted Unit Sergeant Ryan Watkinson.

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Speaker 1: Of course, the beautiful horses Blaze and Jacko. They are incredible.

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Speaker 1: Thank you guys so much for bringing the horses to

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Speaker 1: see us today.

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Speaker 2: Thanks a lot.

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Speaker 3: We couldn't let the dogs have all the glory, so

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Speaker 3: we thought we'd bring them in.

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Speaker 1: Totally