An Army report covered by CNN this week revealed that military horses serving as pall-bearers for Arlington National Cemetery have been suffering poor-living conditions, with one horse recently dying in February with 44 pounds of gravel and sand in his stomach.<\/p>\n
The report was compiled in February by the U.S. Army\u2019s Public Health Command-Atlantic after two horses with the Old Guard \u2014 known for guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier \u2014 died within days of each other.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
More than a dozen inspections conducted between 2019 and 2022 gave the horse facilities \u201cunsatisfactory\u201d sanitary ratings, despite supposed efforts made by the soldiers of Caisson Platoon, who train and care for the horses, the report found, according to CNN.<\/p>\n
There are more than 60 horses attached to the Old Guard, all of which are rotated between stables at Fort Meyer and a six-acre pasture complex at Fort Belvoir, both near Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n
Tony, the horse with 44 pounds of sediment in his gut, died of sand colic, the result of being fed in inappropriate feeding areas.<\/p>\n
Dr. Gabriele Landolt, an assistant professor of equine medicine at Colorado State University\u2019s veterinary college, told CNN that the amount of sediment found in Tony\u2019s stomach was definitely outside the norm.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, that is a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cThat should not be in the colon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mickey, the other horse that died in February, died of septic colic, which was caused by an untreated gastrointestinal illness or injury. Manure and bacteria made their way into his bloodstream, causing an infection.<\/p>\n
Following Mickey and Tony\u2019s deaths, stool samples were collected from 25 other horses in the unit, with the report showing that 80% of the horses had \u201cmoderate to high levels of sediment in their stool,\u201d according to CNN.<\/p>\n
The report also revealed the horses were being fed low-nutritional hay, CNN reported. The \u201ccolor is yellow-brown with large amounts of thick stems and few leaves; dry, dusty, and brittle,\u201d the report showed.<\/p>\n
A senior leader with the Old Guard interviewed by CNN reportedly said that \u201cshort-term fixes\u201d were already underway, including the purchase of mats for the feeding areas and contract changes to improve the quality of hay fed to the horses.<\/p>\n
Longer-term improvements, though, like those needed at the facilities at Fort Belvoir and Fort Myer, rely on increased or re-purposed funding and \u201cmay take multiple years to fix,\u201d the senior leader said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
They’re treating those horses like they’re Marines. Nobody deserves that. I’m sure the soldiers of the Old Guard do their best. They take immense pride in their duties. Like any handler, they become quite attached to their animal comrades. I lay blame for this at levels above the line soldier and NCO. Whomever is ordering the cheap, shitty feed for the steeds doesn’t work for a living.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The beautiful horses of the 3rd Infantry Regiment’s (Old Guard) Caisson Platoon serve at Arlington National … Old Guard’s horses living (and dying) in their own filth<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[220,213,180,359,126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-floggings-will-continue-until-morale-improves","category-your-tax-dollars-at-work","category-arlington-national-cemetary","category-army","category-disposable-warriors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=124750"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124750\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=124750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=124750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=124750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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