Senior Constable Nicole Harvell and Senior Constable Courtney Piper visited students at Sunshine Bay Public School, Mogo Public School, and St Peter's Anglican College with their trusty steeds.

The two officers gave the students a rundown on what the Mounted Police Unit does before taking questions from the curious young minds.

The horses also had the chance to stretch their legs in Broulee and Batemans Bay throughout the day, before their official duties at the Moruya Mardi Gras on Saturday.

Chief Inspector Greg Flood, Officer in charge of Batemans Bay, helped organise the school visits after the Mounted Unit offered their help with Saturday's event.

"We had the Moruya Mardi Gras committee contact the Mounted Unit, and they in turn contacted me to see whether they'd like us to use them for engagement and patrols," he said.

"I took the opportunity to bring them down a day early to get them into three schools for some community engagement.

"It's very rare we get these guys down here and get the kids to see the police using this equipment, and it was a great day for it."

Senior Constable Harvell said the trip from Sydney to the South Coast took about five hours with the horses in the float.

"We had to stop once or twice to get the horses off to stretch their legs," she said.

"Community engagement is a significant part of our job along with high-visibility policing.

"We work at a lot of protests as a resource to help protect everyone there - we also help with road closures and safe crowd movement.

"One horse is equivalent to about 10 police on the ground, so we're a very powerful resource when it comes to managing crowds."

Senior Constable Piper said the Mounted Police Unit was "encouraged" to engage with crowds unless they were working a particularly stressful job.

READ ALSO

"A lot of the time when we're at a police job, we'll get people coming up to engage with us, and it's something we're encouraged to do to have a good experience with the public," she said.

"We're there for crowd control - we'll be at a lot of big sporting events or concerts, and we do general police work throughout the city as well."

Each member of the Mounted Police Unit has their own horse, but will ride other horses frequently as part of their day-to-day jobs.

"We often ride a lot of the horses," Senior Constable Harvell said. "We build relationships and trust with a lot of the horses, but obviously I love riding my horse the most."

"We try to use the most suitable horse for the job," Senior Constable Piper said. "Some of our horses are still going through training so they haven't been as exposed to the big crowds.

"We have a range of riding experience and a range of experience among our horses."