Everything about The Riderless Horse totally explained
The
riderless horse or
caparisoned horse (in reference to its ornamental coverings, which have a detailed protocol all to themselves) is the single riderless horse with boots reversed in the stirrups that follows the
caisson carrying the
casket in a
funeral procession.
The custom is believed to date back to the time of
Genghis Khan, when a horse was sacrificed to serve the fallen warrior in the next world. The caparisoned horse later came to symbolize a warrior who would ride no more. Others suggest that this tradition hailed from over a thousand years before Genghis Khan, when the Afghan people represented the Buddha as a riderless horse.
(External Link
)
In the
United States, the caparisoned horse is part of the military honors given to an
Army or
Marine Corps officer who was a
colonel or above; this includes the
President, by virtue of having been the nation's military commander in chief and the
Secretary of Defense, having overseen the armed forces.
Abraham Lincoln, who was killed in 1865, was the first U.S. president to be honored with a caparisoned horse at his funeral. Traditionally, simple black riding boots are reversed in the stirrups to represent a fallen leader looking back on his troops for the last time.
Black Jack
The most famous riderless horse was "
Black Jack," a half-
Morgan named for
General of the Armies John "Black Jack" Pershing. Black Jack took part in the state funerals of Presidents
John F. Kennedy (1963),
Herbert Hoover, (1964), and
Lyndon Johnson (1973), and General of the Army
Douglas MacArthur (1964).
Black Jack, foaled January 19, 1947, and coming to Ft. Myer from Fort Reno, Oklahoma, on November 22nd, 1952. Black Jack was the last of the
Quartermaster-issue horses branded with the Armies U.S. brand (on the left shoulder} and his Army serial number 2V56 (on the left side of his neck).
Black Jack ended his dedicated, dignified military career on February 6, 1976, and was buried on the parade ground of Fort Myer's Summerall Field.
Sergeant York
"Sergeant York" was formerly known as "Allaboard Jules", a racing
standardbred gelding. He was renamed when he was accepted into the military in 1997. He served as the riderless horse in
President Ronald Reagan's funeral procession, walking behind the caisson bearing Reagan's flag-draped casket.
He was foaled in 1991, sired by Royce and out of the mare Amtrak Collins sired by Computer. He is a descendant of the great
standardbred racing stallions Albatross, Tar Heel and Adios.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Riderless Horse'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://riderless_horse.totallyexplained.com">Riderless horse Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
