Today’s U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farmers Market celebrated "National Meet a Horse Day" with the officers and horses from the United States Park Police Horse Mounted Unit and the soldiers with their horses Klinger (dark horse) and Patton from The U.S. Army Caisson Platoon, 3d U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard), at the USDA headquarters, in downtown Washington, D.C., on July 21, 2017.
Kinger has been featured in a song and a children's book. Since 2014 “National Meet a Horse Day” has been part of the American Horse Council’s Time to Ride Challenge – when horse professionals nationwide unite with a singular goal of helping people meet a horse for the first time. All horses here are working horses that perform unique work throughout the week, that handlers said was an easy day for the horses, as hundreds of children and adults pet the animals and took photos with them in the market and garden areas. The USDA Farmers Market has more than 30 farmers, ranchers & small food businesses from across the Chesapeake Bay region that their sell product every Friday from May to October in southwest Washington, D.C. For more information, please see #HorsesInDC, #USDAFarmersMkt and #MeetAHorse. USDA photo by Lance Cheung. Original public domain image from Flickr