New Interior Secretary Zinke rides into first day in office on horseback
WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke arrived on horseback for his first day of work Thursday.
The morning after his swearing-in ceremony, the former Montana congressman and Navy SEAL joined the U.S. Park Police at their stables on the National Mall. He rode a 17-year-old Irish sport horse named Tonto through downtown Washington to the Interior Department’s headquarters. Nine park police also on horseback accompanied him.
“Secretary Zinke was proud to accept an invitation by the U.S. Park Police to stand shoulder to shoulder with their officers on his first day at Interior,” said Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift.
Humbled by the warm welcome at @Interior this morning pic.twitter.com/1zCvKc0CPL
— Secretary Ryan Zinke (@SecretaryZinke) March 2, 2017
Honored to stand with the brave officers of @USParkPolice – these professionals put their lives on the line for us pic.twitter.com/QbtojcfvLV
— Secretary Ryan Zinke (@SecretaryZinke) March 2, 2017
At the department, hundreds of federal workers greeted Zinke, including an Office of Indian Affairs employee from the Northern Cheyenne tribe from Montana who played an honor song on a hand drum.
Can Zinke do for horses what Joe Biden did for trains? The former vice president and senator famously commuted to his home in Delaware by train for decades.
While Zinke’s urban horse ride is unlikely to become a daily ritual, he seems committed to preserving his image as an avid outdoorsman. He wears a bright orange ballcap and hunting vest in the bio photo of his new secretaryzinke Twitter account. And he has already retweeted a photo showing him and his wife at Glacier National Park in Montana.
The Interior Department oversees 400 million acres of public land, mostly in the West.