"If you can create that cross, then you've got one with the size of a Thoroughbred and the huge legs of a Percheron, which gives it more stamina," he said.
Stamina, Rainwater said, is needed because of the long hours and general nature of police work the animal will be involved with on a day-to-day basis.
Purchasing a properly trained horse is just as important to a police department as purchasing a police cruiser. The cruiser comes equipped with just about everything an officer will need, and the horse should come fully trained so that the department won't have to spend its time training the animal.
Asbury College's horse training curriculum has been in place since 2002, Rainwater said.
"This is our third crop," he said. "This group is the first full group ... they all started when they were young."
One such horse, was Casper, a 16.2 hands or five and a half feet tall, 3-year-old gelding recently picked up by the Lexington Police Department for a six-month trial.
"This one is probably the most important one we've trained so far," Rainwater said. "The Lexington Police Department just picked it up last week. It's on a six month trial."
Rainwater said if things go as planned, Lexington will soon purchase Casper and hopefully that purchase will be the first of many.
"They're going to buy it at the end of six months," he said. "For them to pick up one of our horses and put it on the street, it's going to be monumental for our kids and our program."
Traditionally, police departments purchase horses from professional trainers, whereas Asbury College uses its students to train the animals as part of an Equine Management minor.
Though the Lexington Police Department has only had Casper for a little over 10 days, Officer Lisa Rakes - who has traveled to Wilmore on different occasions to observe the animal - said the horse has displayed a positive attitude and is doing well.
"His willingness to do some of the things we'd encounter on patrol duties, his willingness and his disposition was calm, those were the two big things," Rakes said referring to what she saw in Casper. "Those are the things that will make or break them. His size was another consideration."
Presently, Casper is adjusting to his new surroundings as the officer and animal get to know one another in the stable, but Rakes added the horse should be out with her on patrol soon.
"We'll probably take him out on the street in a week or so," she said.
Lexington, Rakes said, uses mounted patrols in some of the downtown areas surrounding Main Street. The addition of Casper gives Lexington 10 horses in its stable.
Long before Casper ever got to Lexington, he had to complete intensive training at Asbury College. The training, Rainwater said, is designed to teach a horse how to react to different situations it may encounter once it hits the street.
That is one of the goals of the horse training class at the school.
"The goal for our program is two-fold," Rainwater said. "One, it's going to provide a training opportunity for our students to really do something significant to our horses. Two, we'll wind up putting these horses in work, and that's significant. I mean we're not trying to train a horse for somebody to go ride and play with. We want an intensive and intentional training program that proves that our methods of training work."
So, at a young age, Casper, as with every horse in Asbury College's program, is taught how to properly respond to situations. To do this, the students in the class use a variety of materials, including mattresses, balloons and tennis balls.
"Bomb-proofing" the horse is the goal, Rainwater said. "Bomb-proofing" he explained isn't creating a horse that's impervious to TNT, but rather it's training a horse to where nothing, no matter if it's a gun going off or a car back-firing or a balloon that happens to float by its head, will startle it and cause it to panic.
