Four military working horses in the Army's 3rd Infantry Regiment, also known as The Old Guard, have died since February including two since October, a string of deaths that follows an investigation into how horses are treated by the unit.
Two of the horses died within about a month of each other — the latest occurring a day after Thanksgiving. The first pair of deaths occurred within 96 hours of each other in February.
Those first deaths led to a wave of public and congressional attention at The Old Guard and the way it treats its herd, specifically after CNN reported that they were living in small, unsanitary lots, consuming low-quality feed and suffering from parasites — issues that the unit said it has attempted to remedy.
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The Old Guard told Military.com on Friday that the most recent deaths are unrelated and also not connected to deaths in February, but a spokesperson for the unit said that the number of equine deaths that occurred this year is “not common.” Previous members of the unit also said that four successive deaths — three of which appear to be related to gut conditions — are worrying.
“It's alarming to me,” Eugene Burks Jr. told Military.com on Friday. Up until his retirement this summer, Burks was the Caisson platoon's equine facilities and equipment manager and leathersmith for over 20 years; he also…
