The Return Of Horse-drawn Caissons To Arlington National Cemetery Is Delayed For At Least Months

WASHINGTON: The return of horse-drawn caissons at Arlington National Cemetery is being delayed for months and perhaps longer, the Army mentioned Friday, because it struggles to enhance the care of the horses, after two died in 2022 because of poor feed and dwelling circumstances.

Nearly a 12 months after the Army suspended the usage of the grey and black horses for funerals, officers mentioned they’re making progress shopping for new horses, getting higher tools, and bettering the coaching, services and turnout areas. But Maj. Gen. Trevor Bredenkamp, commander of the Military District of Washington, mentioned it’s been way more time consuming and tough than initially anticipated to get this system going once more. And it would take an prolonged time period to get sufficient horses to fulfill the funeral wants.

“We have every intention to resume operations. I can’t give you a week or month or estimate, but it’s requirements based,” Bredenkamp mentioned in a name with a small variety of reporters. He mentioned he doesn’t count on it would take years however “it’s going to take some time.” He mentioned he wouldn’t describe the delay as “indefinite” however repeatedly acknowledged the obstacles to restarting a sustainable program that protects the well being of the horses.

The horses are a part of the caisson platoon of the third Infantry Regiment, often known as the Old Guard, which is finest recognized for guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on the cemetery, positioned simply throughout the river from Washington.

Two of the Old Guard platoon horses, Mickey and Tony, needed to be euthanized inside days of one another in February 2022. Both died from colon impaction.

The Army discovered that the horses had little or no grass of their turnout fields they usually consumed sand and gravel from the bottom whereas consuming the low-quality hay they had been fed. The fields had been suffering from development particles and manure and had been solely massive sufficient to help six or seven horses, nowhere close to the 64 that had been utilizing the fields when Mickey and Tony died, in keeping with an Army investigation.

At the time, officers mentioned the circumstances had been from mismanagement, lack of sources and a poor understanding of the horses’ wants. They additionally mentioned troopers wanted higher coaching on methods to take care of them.

On Friday, Bredenkamp mentioned the Army is struggling to search out sufficient horses to purchase and to search out close by places massive sufficient for the horses to be saved and skilled. The service can be getting lighter-weight caissons and conducting extra in depth coaching for the troopers to journey and maintain the horses.

Ray Alexander, superintendent of the cemetery, mentioned there are 27-30 funerals a day, Monday via Friday, at Arlington, and of these six to eight qualify for escort honors. In order to fulfill that demand, with out surpassing an acceptable workload for the horses, Bredenkamp mentioned they want six squads of horses.

Currently, he mentioned, they’ve 42 horses which can be being cared for at knowledgeable facility in Virginia. Two years in the past, there have been 60 horses in this system, however many needed to be retired.

For the previous 12 months, the Army has used a funeral house hearse or one other car instead of the caisson. And in ceremonies for Army and Marine Corps officers who had been colonels or above, there’s a riderless horse that walks behind the caisson.

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