Culver Academies mounted units invited to another presidential inaugural parade

Culver riders will be making 19^th appearance since 1913

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Dec. 23, 2024

Culver Academies Black Horse Troop and Equestriennes have accepted an invitation to appear in the Presidential Inaugural Parade on Jan. 20.

"We are honored to be invited to take part in the Presidential Inaugural, the 19th for our school," said Head of Schools Doug Bird ’90 Ed.D. "It is a privilege to continue this prestigious tradition, and it reflects Culver's time-honored values of leadership and service.”

The Black Horse Troop first appeared in the 1913 presidential inaugural parade as the official escort for Vice President Thomas Marshall during Woodrow Wilson’s inaugural parade in 1913. The parade honoring the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance will mark the 10^th time participating for the Equestriennes.

More than 70 boys from Culver Military Academy’s Black Horse Troop and Equestriennes, Culver Girl Academy’s mounted honor organization, have been practicing for the parade since October even though they didn’t know they would receive an invitation.

“This means the world to our students,” said Capt. Sean “Skip” Nicholls, Culver’s director of horsemanship. “The students and staff have been putting in a lot of work hoping we would be invited.”

This will be the first inaugural parade for Nicholls, who took over as Culver’s director of horsemanship three years ago. But as the former riding master for the British Armed Forces’ Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment in London, whose job it was to train the riders and horses that guarded the late Queen Elizabeth II during parades, Nicholls is accustomed to pomp and circumstance, but said it is a “step into the unknown” for him.

“I don’t know what the set up is like because we can’t go there and rehearse ahead of time,” he said.

Nicholls said the biggest challenge is finding enough time to prepare for the inaugural parade.

“We need to work out which horses work with other horses because that’s a key part to a successful parade, making sure the right horse is next to the correct horse to support it and then which students are the best to ride those horses,” he said. “That’s absolutely crucial.”

He said he’s reduced the amount of training the students are undergoing, saying too much training can hurt preparations and stress the horses. He said the students were training twice a week up until Thanksgiving break. He said they added another practice for the next three weeks until Christmas break. They will begin practicing every day when they return from break.

To help prepare for the parade, horsemanship students who aren’t going to the parade help at practice by making noise and waving flags to help try to desensitize the horses to the crowd that will be in Washington, D.C.

“They’re our mischief makers,” Nicholls said.

They also have brought  in some fire engines and police cars with their sirens blaring to try to desensitize the horses further.

 

Nicholls said that no matter how much time there is to prepare, something unexpected can always pop up.

“Back in England, we’ve rehearsed, we’ve trained, and everything has gone smoothly; then on the day of the event, you might have three or four mini-episodes where something goes wrong. But generally, the public doesn’t see that. Only you know about that,” he said.

Nicholls also is concerned about things he doesn’t know about the inaugural parade, since he’s never been to one.

In most previous inaugural parades, at least one rider has been pulled from the inaugural parade because their horse was acting up and couldn’t be calmed. Nicholls said they have to be prepared for that.

“Our main concern is the students’ safety and we don’t want to put them in a position where they’re compromised,” he said.

But Nicholls said some of the Culver students are better riders than the riders under him in the Household Cavalry.

“Some of those kids in the U.K. had 20 weeks of training and they’re on parade. I’ve got some riders here who have been riding for five, six, seven, eight years and we’re riding here eight times a week,” he said.

About 73 students are expected to make the trip.

Ainsley Pick ’27 from Pilot Point, Texas, who has been riding for 10 years, said she’s excited to be able to ride in the parade with all of her friends.

“It’s going to be a very cool experience,” she said.

Pick also will be riding her jump horse, Frugal.

In past years the Black Horse Troop rode up front with the Equestriennes behind. This year the lines of Equestriennes will be mixed in with the Black Horse Troop. Pick likes that.

“It feels more like a team atmosphere and that we’re working together instead of as two separate teams,” she said.

Matthew Nendza ’27, from Oak Forest, Illinois, who has been riding for nine years, said the biggest challenge has been getting used to riding while loud music is playing, students are yelling and running around and waving flags.

Nendza said his horse, Pardon Me, has ridden in the inaugural parade twice before and isn’t bothered by the chaos.

“She’s totally fine,” he said.

Pick said her horse has done surprisingly well, especially considering she isn’t accustomed to taking part in parades like many of the other horses at Culver.

“So this is all new to her and she’s handling it really well,” Pick said. “She’s not super scared of all the things we’ve been doing.”

Pick said it’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it because she enjoys riding and she’s friends with the other riders.

“It sounds like it will be exhausting, but it’s going to be rewarding,” she said. “That’s why I’m doing it. I think it will be super exciting.”

Nendza said he’s been told to expect a lot of “hurry up and wait” as they get through security, get to the staging area and then wait for the parade to begin.

So why does he want to go?

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Nendza said. “All of us will remember this forever.”