Uh oh—your car has a flat tire. Time to call AAA for a tow! But what do you do when your police horse needs a new shoe?

Policemen in New York City know just how to help a police horse whose shoe has worn out on the gritty street. They call the farrier! A blacksmith shop on wheels rushes to the rescue. Inside, a 2,850-degree furnace waits ready to forge new horseshoes. Trained farriers (horseshoers) make the repair on the spot. Horseshoe repair trucks are filled with ancient tools—right in the middle of a modern city! Farriers use anvils, hammers, nippers, files, and pullers—all items people have used to shoe horses for centuries.

All 50 horses in New York Police Department’s (NYPD) Mounted Unit are considered police officers. They wear badges around their necks to prove it. The horses get a shoe change every month. Beneath shimmering skyscrapers and billboards, a crowd gathers to watch. NYPD farriers sweat over molten-red steel shoes fresh out of the fire. They use some high-tech tactics too. For extra grip and strength, they weld shoes with a layer of tungsten carbide. That material is twice as hard as steel. Sparks fly. The farriers hammer away. They work for an hour, swapping out the shoes on a horse named McQuade II. Horns honk. People shout. A helicopter whirs overhead. The trained horse doesn’t even flinch.