OklahomaHorses Magazine November 2022

12 OklahomaHorses • November / December 2022 Sain and his wife, Kathie, are proud alumni of Oklahoma State University. They both graduated in 1968, Sain with a degree in animal husbandry and his wife in accounting. A True Mentor The humble Sain won’t toot his own horn, but his fellow patrolman can’t sing his praises high enough. “Ed’s not only been very charitable to OSU in donating horses, he was also a mentor to a lot of the younger deputies coming in,” said Loudermilk, who has been with the patrol for 18 years. “He’s also donated horses and tack to help some of the younger deputies get started in the program. He’s been a great mentor to us for as far back as I can remember.” Sain had been around since Loudermilk’s very first mounted parade. That was back when the mounted patrol didn’t do much law-enforcement work. As times have changed, the mounted patrol has changed right along with them. “When I first started, we didn’t do any police work, it was strictly parades and stuff like that,” Sain said. “It became serious about halfway through. That’s when we started getting more involved in the actual law enforcement.” Perhaps the catalyst for that change was the bombing of the Murrah Federal Build- ing in April 1995. Sain was one of the last mounted deputies who was present on that tragic day. “That first day, I was on foot because the day before, we had dropped our horses off with the farrier,” Sain said. “I was one block down the hill from the Murrah Building, or what was left of it, standing in the middle of the street because glass was falling out of all the buildings.” At the time, his wife was also part of the mounted patrol, and she was just a block down the hill from him. Their job was to keep everyone away from the bomb site. They were back the next day, but that time mounted. A True Deputy “After 36 years, I’m ready to call it quits,” Sain said. “It’s one of those things where I’m old enough that I didn’t want to be a hazard to anybody, so it was time to quit.” His boots will be impossible to fill; everyone currently on the mounted patrol worked with Sain in some capacity. “I can’t remember more than a handful of events that Ed wasn’t available to work in the last 24 years that I’ve been on the mounted patrol,” said fellow patrolman and section leader Randy Garner. “From New Year’s Eve to parades all over the county, wherever we needed Ed, he was there. He’s always been dependable.” “Loyal,” “steadfast,” and “approachable” are just some of the other words Sain’s fellow patrolmen use to describe him as they think of the days when he won’t be mounted next to them. “He’s been a steady stream of influence for all of us younger guys coming in,” Loudermilk said. “And he’s certainly made it financially possible, with the donations of horses and tack, to really promote the program. From my very first day, Ed taught me everything I was supposed to do every step of the way.” It’s clear that the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office Mounted Patrol will be hard-pressed to find someone more loyal and dedicated than Sain has been during his influential and monumental career as a deputy. Interested in the OCSO Mounted Patrol? “We’re a dying breed; there are very few mounted patrols left,” said Johnny Loud- ermilk, a deputy on the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) Mounted Patrol. “We’re getting older, and we’re trying to find a younger generation to step up and fill spots as we leave.” The OCSO Mounted Patrol wouldn’t still exist without the support of Oklahoma County Sheriff Tommie Johnson III. “We would certainly like to see younger officers interested in horses and those kinds of things who want to combine that with law enforcement,” Loudermilk said. “Not just here in Oklahoma County, but across our nation.” All members of the OCSO Mounted Patrol must pass rigorous testing each year before they can go out in the field. Along with qualifying on the shooting range, deputies take their mounts through an obstacle course to simulate what they might encounter in the field. “Horses are such a public-relations piece, and they do things that machinery can’t,” said OCSO mounted patrolman and section leader Randy Garner. “We go places patrol cars can’t, and people can relate to a horse in a way they can’t to a machine. People gravitate toward horses, and it helps them relax in tense situations like a crime scene.” The OCSO Mounted Patrol gets called out for a wide variety of events in Okla- homa City and surrounding towns all year. Some of their major events include the Oklahoma State Fair, parades, rodeos, festivals, and holiday events. If you are interested in learning more about the OCSO Mounted Patrol, call (405) 869-2522. Black Bart It shouldn’t be surprising that retired Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) Mounted Patrolman Ed Sain was always well mounted and that those horses came with a unique story. The last horse he used, Black Bart, rode with Sain in the mounted patrol for 20 years. “I owned his mom (Whistlin’ Black Bug) and handpicked his dad (the Corporate Image),” Sain said. “My wife [Kathie] rode his mom, who was only 14.3 hands and maybe 900 pounds. I found a big halter horse to breed her to, and we got Bart.” Registered as Whistlin’ in the Dark, Bart started in the patrol when he was just short of three years old. As with multiple horses before, Sain said, he eased Bart into it all, and he took everything in stride, just like his mama. “His mom was bombproof from the day we bought her, and Bart has been similar to her in that regard,” Sain said. Although their temperaments might have matched, Bart looks nothing like his dam. He took after his sire in size and stature. Sain rode the monstrous gelding in a snaffle bit. The pair easily turned heads everywhere they went. Named after a stagecoach robber from the 1870s, Black Bart is a perfect match for Sain — intimidating in size but sweet as honey when you get up close.