The Rochester Police Department hosted training for mounted patrol officers in conjunction with several departments Thursday. 

Among them was one longtime officer who is considered a pioneer in his field. When it comes to police work, Gary Cicoria is a different breed.

“People don't come up and pet a patrol car,” Cicoria said. “But they will pet a police horse."

Cicoria, a mounted patrol deputy with the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office, was one of the participants in a drill run by RPD. 

He once was active in rodeo, and a previous narcotics investigator with RPD. At the request of the late Mayor Tom Ryan, and with the support of then-police chief Thomas Hastings, Cicoria helped revive a mounted patrol which was decommissioned in 1927.

“I use to get my chops busted that I was a cowboy in the Rochester Police Department,” Cicoria laughed.

In 1977, Cicoria was known as "Patrol One," the first mounted patrol officer for RPD in 50 years. It took him about five minutes, he says, before his first call to help break up a fight at the corner of North Clinton and Main.

“I fell in love with it,” he said. “They put me in uniform, I rode through the parks, I rode downtown, and I couldn’t believe the impact it had on the community."

After retiring from RPD, Cicoria joined Livingston County’s mounted patrol, where he’s been a member for 27 years. 

He’s spent four decades ready for any situation with an unconventional partner.  

“Well, they don't talk back,” he laughed. “There’s a bond, no doubt. There's a bond with the horse."