Richmond’s four police horses, Aslan, Samson, Scooter and Toby, are finally getting a new home.

A new stable is headed for 601 N. 39th St., a 45-acre city property located between Franklin MilitaryAcademy and Gillies Creek, according to an ordinance introduced Monday night at the City Council meeting.

Expected to pass at the June 27 City Council meeting, the ordinance authorizes Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s administration to accept a gift of around $3.9 million from the Friends of the Richmond Mounted Squad to pay for the new horse stable.

The new stable would replace a long-condemned metal stable the police horses now occupy on Brook Road, just a stone’s throw from Gilpin Court. The building remains in use even though it had been deemed unfit for such use since 2002.

As the Free Press reported last year, an anonymous donor stepped forward to fund the new stable. The ordinance indicates the gift is passing through the Friends to the city. The city had set aside $1.5 million in 2018 to replace the current stable but dropped the idea after bids came in more than $1 million over budget. The city still has about $1.4 million to spend but may not have to use it given the size of the gift.

The selected site is a former landfill that also sits in the flood plain. The cost ballooned because of the extensive site work that would be needed to make the property usable.

The new stable is projected to be located closer to 39th Street to reduce the amount of work. Past plans called for the new horse barn to cover 3.5 acres of the property, include 12 horse stalls that would serve city horses and potentially those from other area agencies that might add horses.

Richmond’s Mounted Squad was launched in the 1890s and ranks among the oldest such police units in the country.