Black Jack, a 14-year veteran of the St. Paul Mounted Police Unit, is moving on to greener pastures. The 17-year-old gelding, the longest-serving police horse in the department, retired Friday at a ceremony at Meadowview Stables in Woodbury.
Black Jack appeared friendly at Friday's farewell festivities, in which a service award was presented to his owners, the Grannis family, who donated the horse for police duty and who will care for him in retirement.
The horse is expected to kick back in his old age at the family's Darvan Acres Nature Center in Inver Grove Heights.
Debra Grannis said Black Jack takes after his mother, who died a couple of years ago. "He's very much like her, very curious, very outgoing," she said.
Black Jack is being replaced by Rascal, one of six horses in the unit.
Nicole Norfleet
