Riding a Fine Line
Devising Sustainable and Healthy Operations for the Army Caisson Horses of Arlington National Cemetery
RAND Army Research Division
The Army has bought an $8 million range in the elegant Cavalier Country in Virginia for its 60 strong herd of caisson funeral horses that are getting a massive upgrade of facilities, breeding and training. Military Horsemen of The Old Guard will themselves be spruced up by higher qualifications to earn the unique to The Old Guard Badge of Military Horseman.
The regiment HQ has noted many times the Caisson Platoon Clydesdales and Percheron breeds are its greatest equipment expense. Each horse costs $25,000 just to be housed in the stable. Last year Congress mandated in the DoD annual authorization $30m to complete stable renovations, find the new farm facility, and to hire world class equine experts. Congress also prohibited the Army from disbanding the Caisson Platoon as some budget Hitlers had proposed.
"Horses are expensive to feed, house and train properly," said Army
Maj. Gen. Trevor Bredenkamp who's CG of the Military District of Washington. “If we’re going to maintain them to the high level of fitness that they need, to be able to do this mission and not be injured, then that’s another part of the investment,” he said.

Sgt. Natalee Silva kisses a horse during a training exercise. Michael A. McCoy for The Washington Post
The MDW and TOG have already upshifted to hire all star equestrian experts. Chester Weber, a world champion competitive carriage driver has been hired to oversee equine training.
David O’Connor who's a 2000 Olympic gold medalist equestrian has revamped the soldiers’ new riding program and Jim Westbrook, an expert in Clydesdale and Percheron draft breeds, scours hours of videos of sale horses to find suitable prospects for purchase. “I think in three years, it’s going to become a program the likes of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or the British, that other [similar] programs want to come and emulate,” Weber said.
Once a week Martin Kohnen who's the retired riding master for the RCMP flies in from Ottawa to train [horse] squads in “postilion” riding, an antiquated form of wagon pulling that the caisson platoon performs for each funeral. Three horses on the left are ridden while those on the right remain unmounted, meaning riders must get their own mounts and the horse next to them to walk in the same direction. “It takes years to become proficient,” Kohnen said of the postilion work. “Here, they’ve got weeks.”
What’s required: A horse whose back isn’t too long nor legs so straight as to create health ailments down the line. One that arrives somewhat trained in three specialties — riding, wagon pulling and a special form of guided walk called
neck-reining. It must be a black gelding, a neutered male. And finally, it must be able to tolerate the stimuli of a state funeral through the streets of Capitol Hill when necessary.
"I believe the Army sincerely desires to fix most of the issues now facing the program,” Jon C. Kreitz, a retired Navy admiral and U.S. Equestrian Federation board member,
told Congress last month. “But it will not succeed without a core group of permanently assigned commissioned military officer equestrian experts.