Mounted soldiers in the US Army Caisson Detachment support one of the military\u2019s most sacred missions: transporting fallen service members to their final resting places inside Arlington National Cemetery. The casket is placed on a wagon, known as a caisson, and conveyed through the cemetery by three soldiers. Each soldier rides one horse and controls another with their right hand.<\/p>\n
Many of these soldiers start off with little to no experience with horses. After being selected based on their composure, discipline, and physical fitness, they must complete an 12-week basic horsemanship course, followed by six weeks of advanced instruction.<\/p>\n
The Caisson Detachment returned from a nearly two-year suspension in 2025 after an investigation revealed that the deaths of multiple horses were connected to unsanitary living conditions.<\/p>\n
The Army hired equestrian champion Chester Weber, an heir to the Campbell\u2019s Soup fortune, to revamp the training. Weber assembled a team of world-class equestrian professionals and provided his Florida stud farm as a location for the advanced training program, which culminates with a validation test that all soldiers must pass before they can ride in funeral missions.<\/p>\n
Chief video correspondent Graham Flanagan went inside training to find out what it takes to be a mounted soldier in the US Army Caisson Detachment.<\/p>\n
00:00 – The Military’s Most Sacred Mission
\n01:13 – Advanced Training in Ocala, Florida
\n02:07 – Meet Inga: the German Riding Instructor
\n02:42 – Soldier Qualifications
\n03:13 – The Squad’s Only Woman
\n04:31 – From Motor Transport Operator to Horse Soldier
\n05:27 – Wagon Training with the Royal Family’s Former Coachman
\n06:24 – The Postillion Riding Style
\n07:45 – The $256,000 Caisson Wagon
\n08:05 – The Suspension and Return of the Caisson Program
\n09:25 – Taking Care of the Horses
\n10:32 – The Percheron Breed
\n10:58 – Desensitizing the Horses
\n13:16 – The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Sentinel Joins Caisson
\n13:57 – The Section Worker’s Dirty Job
\n14:30 – $160,000 Worth of Tack
\n14:48 – The Validation Test
\n16:27 – Test Results
\n18:10 – Funeral Mission
\n19:23 – Real-World Stakes
\n20:13 – Credits
\n——————————————————
\n#USarmy #CaissonDetachment #horses #bootcamp <\/p>\n
MORE BOOT CAMP VIDEOS: Business Insider is a global newsroom covering business, technology, innovation, and the economy.<\/p>\n Visit our homepage for the top stories of the day: https:\/\/www.businessinsider.com\/?utm_source=youtube<\/a> Find Business Insider on Facebook: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/businessinsider<\/a> Mounted soldiers in the US Army Caisson Detachment support one of the military\u2019s most sacred missions: transporting fallen service members<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicheblog.top\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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