WASHINGTON D.C. — Culver Academy’s Black Horse Troop made its first formal appearance, serving as Honor Guard for Indiana Governor James Mount at the Grand Army of the Republic Encampment in Richmond, Indiana in May of 1897.
An escort to past president’s, emperors, kings, and queens, the Black Horse Troop has represented the Culver Academies to the world for more than one hundred years. Today they packed their bags and head east to participate in Friday’s Presidental Inaugural Parade.
Around 5 a.m. Wednesday morning, the horse troop packed up three buses to take almost 100 students to Washington D.C. for the 13-hour trip.
Fifty-seven boys and 23 girls are riding in the parade. Two boys and two girls will be carrying the banner and 12 others are going as alternates, who will help with preparing the horses for the parade, according to our partners at WNDU.
Another 80 horses were hauled into 5 semi-trailers and followed shortly after the buses left.
On Sunday, they held practice parade to make sure they were ready for Friday’s real deal.
Participating students have been paired with a horse since September and they’ve been practicing three to four days a week since then.
“We have one girl who is from Plymouth, Jordan Blackburne; her dad rode in ’69, her oldest brother rode in 2001, her second brother rode in 2005 and she’s riding this year,” says Assistant Director of Communications, Jan Garrison.
The first-timers are equally excited says Garrison. Some of whom are well aware of the school’s 17 years of inaugural parade appearances.
“A lot of them come just because they hear about Culver through the inaugural parade,” he says.
The schedule is busy once they arrive in Washington. Wednesday the kids will tour some of the historic memorials around the District. On Thursday, they’ll prep the horses for the inaugural parade the following day.
Then, on Friday they’ll be up around 4:30 a.m. to meet the horses, then 3 buses of students and 6 trailers of horses and gear will be lead into the city via police escort. There they will prep the horses, until the parade starts around 2 p.m.
