By Tom Squitieri
Red Snow News
WASHINGTON – A yearlong suspension of horse-drawn funerals at Arlington National Cemetery is expected to extend indefinitely as the Army faces old and new obstacles in improving horse care.
Testifying on Capitol Hill, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said, “It’s surprisingly complex and challenging” to solve the problems that lead to terrible conditions and deaths of Arlington honor horses.
“We have quite a bit of work to do before we can operate that particular service, which is so important, safely and efficiently,” she said during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.
Army officials have pushed back at characterizations of the shutdown as “indefinite” but repeatedly did not dismiss questions about the slow and in some cases apparently lack of progress in key areas.
The horses of the platoon, known as the Old Guard, provide gravesite escort to caskets of fallen service members on a caisson, which is a wagon once used to carry ammunition and bring dead soldiers off the battlefield.
Earlier reports first made by Red Snow News in part prompted the Army to pause the program over health concerns last year.
Two of the platoon’s horses died within days of each other in 2022, both with gravel and sand in their digestive systems. A total of four died over a one yer span. An Army investigation showed horses were living in cramped and unsatisfactory conditions, grazing on fields littered with construction debris and manure, consuming low-quality hay and suffering from parasites.
For example the Army found that the horses had very little grass in their turnout fields and they consumed sand and gravel from the ground while eating the low-quality hay they were fed. The fields were only large enough to support six or seven horses, nowhere near the 64 that were using the fields when Mickey and Tony died, according to an Army investigation.
More than a dozen inspections conducted between 2019 and 2022 gave the horse facilities “unsatisfactory” sanitary ratings, despite supposed efforts made by the soldiers of Caisson Platoon, who train and care for the horses. A lack of space, inadequate funding and the turnover of unit commanders were noted as the primary issues. The horses were fed poor-quality feed, suffered parasite infestations and lived in excrement-filled mud lots.
Roughly half of the more than 60 horses in the unit were over 20 years old — or geriatric.
There are 42 horses that are being cared for at a professional facility in Virginia. Two years ago, there were 60 horses in the program, but many had to be retired.
Last May 4, 2023, it was asked at a Pentagon briefing if Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was satisfied with the Army’s decision to stand down the Caisson unit at Arlington National Cemetery as a way to further review the treatment of the horses there. Deputy Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh said at that time, “So I know what you’re referring to. I just don’t have more information on that. I’d be happy to take that question and get back to you and provide an answer.”
She has yet to do that.
Wormuth said the platoon still needs to purchase 30 additional horses and find pasture land to support them. The stables at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Va., also need to be reconstructed to care properly for the horses, she said.
