Two police officers couldn't tell their horses apart, so they did something pretty crazy

A police station got two new horses, and two cops were assigned to be mounted police officers. They went on a ride and came back pleased.

"This horse is great! From now on I'll always take this one," said the first cop.

"My horse's great too. So I'll always take it too," replied the second cop.

"But how do we know which is which?"

They thought about it for a minute or two, until one of them came up with an idea. "Let's shorten this one's tail!"

The other cop agreed, and they gave the horse's tail a thorough trimming.

The next morning, they found the police chief standing in front of the horses looking really mad. The two officers asked him what was wrong.

"You two morons shortened this beautiful horse's tail, that's what's wrong!"

"But otherwise, we couldn't tell them apart," one of the cops protested.

To which the chief angrily replied, "Can't you see the black one is a bit taller than the brown one?!"