Hi, my name is Amanda Gradwell. I am twenty-five. I came to Intelligarde wanting to work with animals. I owned my own horse and had interest in law enforcement. My goal was to integrate my two passions into a career. In February 1999, my eye caught a newspaper ad I couldn’t believe: Mounted Guards Required, Toronto. This was the job of my dreams! I applied and was soon hired as one of Intelligarde’s first Mounted Security Guards. I signed up for every course Intelligarde has to offer: self defense, hand-cuffing, baton, first aid, and my M.L.E.O. certificate (to write parking tags on private property in Toronto). I became a combination mobile and mounted Guard at Intelligarde. I’d like to share a typical night in a “virtual ride-along.”   18:00 Saturday night, Parking Authority of Toronto lot directly across from the Air Canada Center in “the core” of Toronto. A game is underway. Ben,* my Percheron mount, stands seventeen hands high—easy to spot in a crowd. Together we keep a watchful eye over the vehicles and customers, looking for suspicious loiterers and deterring break-ins. 23:00 The night moves along with ease. Ben and I help a few people find their way back to their cars and give directions to “out-of-towners.” Time to leave. 00:03 Ben is back in his stall for the night. I get geared up with spit-shined boots and Level Two external body armour (vest, duty belt with hand cuffs, glove pouch, and 25” baton). My K9 partner is 3-year-old male Doberman Pepper, top-notch guard dog and my right arm. We’ll patrol private properties tonight. 03:43 A female trespasser   refuses to leave a property we protect. After continued resistance, I place her under arrest, read her rights and do a quick weapons search. I advise Dispatch to send the Police. I issue the female a banning notice. 04:00 Police arrive and take custody of the female. I jot notes including Police badge numbers, then radio dispatch that all is okay. On to our next site. 04:45 It’s been a long and exciting night. After visiting several properties, my last hit is an apartment building in Toronto’s West End. Pepper and I start at the rooftop and check all stairwells and floors down to the underground parking. All is quiet. 05:45 Back at base, I return Pepper to his kennel and finish paperwork. There’s a little time left to chat with fellow Guards—my partners and great friends—before I head home for a well deserved sleep.   Happy Ending Agent Gradwell has since moved up the ranks to in-house security with the Toronto School Board. She married another former Intelligarde employee who is now with TCHC (Toronto Community Housing Company) and they had a son. *Follow-Up Ben was sold to the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary in October 2003, along with another Intelligarde-trained horse named Jed.