ALTAMONT — The Altamont Fair this week has huge work horses again in the Draft Horse Barn for the first time in several years. The six Belgian mares belong to Kurt Johnson of Knox and his family.

Johnson, 32, considers himself lucky to have a life that, for now at least, revolves around horses at both work and home. He is an Albany County police officer, and for the last two years he has been with the mounted police unit.

At home on their farm, the Johnsons have seven Belgian mares. They have another three Belgian foals and a Belgian stallion at the Schodack farm of Kurt Johnson’s parents.

The mounted police unit headquartered at the city’s Stevens Farm on Delaware Avenue in Albany maintains six horses: four Belgians and two Percherons, which are a French draft horse breed. The police horses are ridden by five officers, including four patrolmen and one sergeant.

A horse is not a partner in the same way that a police dog would be, Johnson said. It “won’t bond to a handler like a dog will,” he said. An officer doesn’t necessarily always ride the same horse. But the horses “definitely do act differently with different people riding them,” he said.

Walking through his stable in Knox, Johnson called Belgians “the linemen of the horse breed.” They are significantly taller and stockier than quarter horses. They are also “gentle giants,” he says. “They’re very tolerant.”

Johnson and his wife, Katie, showed draft horses at the Altamont Fair for many years, until that exhibit was discontinued three years ago.

At their farm, the Johnsons also have a quarter horse for their 14-year-old daughter, Kayleigh, and a miniature horse for their 6-year-old daughter, Abby.

In a stall, Katie Johnson held a horse’s lead while Abby demonstrated the way she climbs a small stepladder — even standing on the top part of the ladder, above the steps — to get up onto Jazz, one of the family’s smaller Belgians. Jazz was unfazed.

Kurt Johnson admired horses all his life, but never rode one until he was 18. On the spot, he thought to himself, “I’m buying a horse,” and he soon did, from someone in Schodack. It was a Belgian draft horse.

Then he got a quarter horse, he says, and then started “picking up” more Belgians. “One turns into 14, 15 pretty quick.”

He joined the police force at 21 and was a patrolman for nine years before going to the mounted police unit two years ago. Asked if he plans to stay with that unit, he said, “That’s my intention.”

The Johnsons are bringing six of their seven mares to the fairgrounds every day. “I can fit six horses in my trailer,” Johnson said. One of his horses is too young and inexperienced, he says, and will stay back.

They will also bring a restored 1898 wagon that is one of several that will be used in a nightly demonstration at the fair. It started out as a freight wagon, Johnson said, and during the Spanish-American War was turned into an ambulance. He bought it in 2009 to use as a vintage show wagon, when it was in rough but usable shape, and had it restored in 2010. “Rather than modern-day gear, I like the nostalgia of original gear,” he said.

The horses will be on display all day throughout the fair in the Draft Horse Barn.

Demonstrations will be held every night at 6 p.m. Horses will be hitched to wagons in a six-horse hitch, with the lighter, more agile horses (Jazz is one) in front; then the “sling horses,” which are slightly bigger, in the middle; and the biggest, wheel horses, which will pull more of the weight, in back.

One night during the fair, the horses will be used four abreast to pull a vintage fire truck that will carry a group of firemen. Traditionally, until the introduction of gas motors in the early 20th Century, horses pulled fire trucks, Johnson said. Most often, these would have been teams or sometimes three horses abreast, but horses at the time were conditioned to pull heavy loads. He will use four abreast because “it’s easier on the horses. Mine don’t get worked every day.”

Katie Johnson grew up around horses, she said. She got her first horse when she was around 10 years old and had gotten into 4-H.

One more sign that horses are an integral part of the Johnsons’ life?

They got married on horseback, at Kurt Johnson’s parents’ farm. There were only about 30 people there, he said.

Katie Johnson was on an old horse she had had since childhood. She was wearing not a wedding dress, but blue jeans and a white shirt.

Her father held her horse’s lead and walked her slowly down the aisle.

Kurt Johnson was waiting on another horse, and they did the entire service on horseback.

Then Katie Johnson climbed down and got up onto her husband’s horse, and they “rode off into the sunset,” Kurt Johnson said. “Well, actually, into the barn, where we got down off the horses.”