Police horses in London are undergoing special training because they keep getting ‘spooked’ by LGBT road markings.
Roads across the city were transformed as part of the Colourful Crossings project, which was launched in solidarity with the LGBT community.
The Metropolitan Police posted a tweet yesterday detailing the need for horses to ‘get used to’ the rainbow colours.
The bright markings have caused some confused horses to veer off in different directions while on patrol.
The Met says special training where horses practice crossing colourful streets would ‘eliminate risk to public, motorists, or distress to our horses’.
Police bosses admitted the difficulty was ‘something we hadn’t expected’.
The force tweeted: ‘Something we hadn’t expected was that some of the horses are getting spooked by the bright colours of the Colourful Crossings project and other road markings in central London.
‘A misconception is that horses only see in black and white. They may not see colour the way we do, but they are not “colour blind”.
‘Therefore, the differing shades and patterns of a colourful crossing could suggest an obstacle in the road, causing a horse to shy from something that we, as humans do not see.’
One Twitter user questioned the cost of the training and wrote: ‘How much is this training costing the tax payer? And would it not have been cheaper to simply paint over them in a colour that the horses don’t find distressing?’
Some commented the horses seemed to be going through ‘diversity training’.
Others raised concerns about the road markings when it comes to people with guide dogs or visual impairments.
The traditional blank and white ‘stripe design’ on most roads offer a high contrast distinction, which is important for those with low vision.
Bright blue bike lane markings can also cause issues to some road users – of both the two and four-legged variety.
A spokesman from the Metropolitan Police told the Telegraph that ‘contrary to some speculation online, we haven’t sent our horses on diversity training’.
They continued: ‘A “spooked” horse can cause danger to road users and riders and we noticed that some of the new markings on London’s roads – such as blue cycle pathways or other coloured symbols such as rainbow crossings – were catching them by surprise.
‘To make their training more realistic, we’ve painted them onto the roads at our training centre.
‘This was done with the generous support of a road marking company at no additional cost.’
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