The Army is planning to put most of its horses up for adoption after ending most of their ceremonial programs.
The Old Guard ceremonial caisson units at Joint Base San Antonio and Arlington National Cemetery will remain in operation for burial honors.
Ceremonial cavalry units will be closed at bases, such as Fort Cavazos in Texas, from which the horses took part in the military parade in Washington on June 14. It was the Army’s 250th anniversary and the 79th birthday of President Donald Trump.
Steve Warren, a spokesperson for the Army, said other ceremonial units will be shut down at Colorado’s Fort Carson, Oklahoma’s Fort Sill, California’s Fort Irwin, Kansas’s Fort Riley, and Arizona’s Fort Huachuca.
According to Army estimates, shutting down the units will save about $2 million a year. The changes are part of a war-fighting realignment, said Warren. The Army is giving the bases a year to close the units.
Warren said 141 horses will be adopted outside the military, and some may be donated to organizations, but none will be sold.
They “are part of the Army family, we’re going to treat them with compassion,” Warren said of the horses.
The Army has recently restarted caisson operations at Arlington National Cemetery. This comes after a probe found that horses in those units had been mistreated and had been left to graze in areas with little grass, prompting them to attempt to eat sand and gravel. Two horses passed away in 2022, with caisson operations being suspended until earlier this year.
The horses at Arlington National Cemetery are part of the caisson platoon at the 3rd Infantry Regiment, which is also called the Old Guard. They’re best known for guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which is located at the cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., in Virginia.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
