Now 30, the stocky Morgan gelding is getting ready to pack it in, and Patrolman Emilio "Moe" Ciriello, the city's top cop horseman and the entire 19 rider unit want to be sure the retirement is done right.

"This horse paid his dues over and over, he's done it all," says Ciriello. "Riots, strikes, parades, the marathon, busing, the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Fenway Park.

"He's even made the Patriots Day ride to Lexington from the Old North Church with Paul Revere."

"But that's only half of it. Prescott made horsemen out of dozens of rookie riders."

"He's a clever, street wise, all class horse. We want him as long as we can have him, but you never know at his age."

Ciriello says he is too good a horse to end up in the glue factory, so he has reserved a plot at the Angel View Pet Cemetery in Middleboro.

"And the grave is going to have a white picket fence around it, too. And a headstone. If I thought there were some way we could finance it, I'd like to erect a statue of a horse and a policeman rider at the grave.:

Listening to Ciriello, who grew up in the North End, you'd think he was the only rider Prescott ever had. But the magic of the big bay with the kind eye and black mane and tail, is that he was too good to be one rider's horse.

"He was everybody's horse because he was so good," Ciriello said. "He was so well-behaved everybody wanted him., everybody trusted him."

Prescott came to the Mounted Unit, based at the big turn-of-the-century estate stable in Jamaica Plain, as a gift from former Mayor Kevin H. White.

"It was probably the best gift the Department ever got," says groom Helen Henderson of Hyde Park, who's official municipal title is "hostler."

"Everybody likes Prescott because there in nothing to dislike about him. He's almost to valuable to retire."

Note:
Prescott passed from this earth in 1996 and crossed the "Rainbow Bridge" where he awaits his friends.

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