Teego’s mother has died; horse not returned

Teego’s mother, Shanta, has died, said Rochelle Thompson, the Hilltown woman who owns both horses.

The news came, Thompson said, as she continues to wait for Teego , the horse who has yet to be returned to the family, after serving some 10 years with the New York City Police Department’s Mounted Unit.

“We are overwhelmed by the loss,” said Thompson, on a website where she has been calling for Teego’s return.

“Although it’s devastating to realize that not only is Shanta suddenly gone and was cruelly and senselessly prevented from having more than a year spent with Teego, who served as a hero alongside his human hero partners in blue, I would still like to keep the promise made to him and made to her,” wrote Thompson. “The one that made her ears instantly perk up and gave her a sweet faraway look of remembering, that, ‘Teego’s coming home.’”

A legal struggle is under way to have the horse returned to Bucks County from an unspecified retirement farm in New York. Earlier this month, a Bucks County judge ordered Teego’s whereabouts to be disclosed to the Thompsons and that the horse be returned to them.

The New York City Law Department has said only that Teego is being well-cared for.