Toronto Mayor John Tory and TTC CEO Rick Leary were joined by the city's top cops on Thursday to announce an increase in police patrols on the transit network amid a rash of criminal activity that has left riders feeling shaken.

It didn't take long after the announcement for the police to deploy boots on the ground at TTC stations, or in the case of St. Clair subway station, horseshoes.

The Toronto Police Mounted Unit proudly tweeted a photo showing one of its horses on duty in 53 Division, patrolling the area around St. Clair Station in a response to the mayor's call for an "all hands on deck approach to restoring safety and order on our public transit system."

#PHFirstResponder patrols St Clair Station while on duty in 53 Division. There needs to be an “all hands on deck approach” to restoring safety and order on our public transit system. #toronto #policehorse #enoughisenough pic.twitter.com/NFezvhxMAL

— Toronto Police Mounted Unit (@TPSMounted) January 26, 2023

All hands on deck, in this instance, seem to also include hooves.

Can't even taze

— Pierre's Burner Phone (@PPollievre) January 27, 2023

The impracticality of having horse-mounted officers patrolling a subway station, or at least the grounds surrounding it, was not lost on Twitter commenters, including one who said, "Sending a horse to keep the subway safer LOL guys are you serious."

Neigh.

— Thurston Nuggs IV (@IvNuggs) January 27, 2023

It's an unexpected dose of humour in what has been a grim few weeks of crime on the TTC, spurring joking responses like, "what's the horse gonna do. fella can't even fit on the subway. this city sucks, man."

very useful in case a carriage robbery or a saloon gunfight breaks out at the subway stop. get a real job.

— john (@johnsemley3000) January 27, 2023

The Globe and Mail's Oliver Moore responded, "Sure hope the person committing a crime doesn't run down an escalator."

Three weeks from now pic.twitter.com/WDAoMOmNP9

— Jeff Veillette (@JeffVeillette) January 26, 2023

"please post pictures of the horse riding the subway next," reads one comment, continuing, "Does the horse have a PRESTO card? Really cannot see how this helps in the slightest."

Jokes aside, the Twitter response also delved into a bit of a conspiracy rabbit hole, when one commenter noted that the photo was remarkably free of snow despite the massive snowstorm that walloped Toronto on Wednesday.

This is a very good point. Where is the snow in the photo? If it was taken today. There is a crust everywhere today, nothing is that clean. Can somebody get a shot of the Pleasant Blvd entrance to the st Clair subway. https://t.co/q6E3i0KoIS

— Maltese Petard ( Official Parody) 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ (@shawnmicallef) January 27, 2023

When someone visited the station's Pleasant Boulevard entrance on Thursday night, there was indeed snow on the ground, indicating that this staged photo-op was, perplexingly, taken before the mayor's "all hands on deck" message to police.