MARYVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — Move over Mr. Ed and make way for five-year-old Buck and 15-year-old Chuck. The two Tennessee Walking Horses are Blount County Sheriff’s Deputies.

“Yeah, they’re considered officers,” says Deputy Elizabeth Best. “They have a badge. They carry their badge on their saddle.”

Buck and Chuck, along with Best and Deputy Marshall Davis, make up the Blount County Sheriff’s Mounted Patrol division.

“It’s not something you see all the time. Officers on horses,” said Davis.

While this may be true, their contribution to combating crime can be priceless.

“Especially the search and the rescue aspect of it. Being able to cover more ground,” said Davis. “These guys can walk miles and miles and miles than you are able to on foot.”

It’s just one of the many benefits these four-legged officers bring to their job.

“If we’re doing search and rescue. We are up higher than people walking. So, we can see a lot further distances,” added Best.

The training for Buck and Chuck is something not taken lightly.

“They’re trained in crowd control. So, if we’re at an event and a ruckus breaks out then these horses will drive right through it to back people up,” Best told WATE Six On Your Side. “Anything we can do as officers on the ground we can do on them. We’ve made arrests on those. We’ve made traffic stops on the horse. Not quite sure how we did that, but it works.”

The summer months are the most active for these two teams. However, there is still plenty of work to do in the fall just look to the sidelines once the high school football season kicks off.

“I think one of the best uses that we get out of them is the relationship we can build with the community obviously. They’re much more approachable,” said Davis.

Bridging gaps and keeping the community they serve safe are two reasons why these four deputies are vital to the BCSO family. The Sheriff’s Mounted Patrol was formed in 2003.