Honestly, if I still lived in NOVA rather than MD I’d be very tempted to apply. I used to drive by the stables every day on the way to work, and while I remember it not being where I’d want to keep my horse, I do not remember the paddocks you could see from the road looking as terrible as the article describes. But it’s been 5+ years now, things change…
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The pay made me do a double-take. Not too shabby! Tells me the Army is pretty serious about improving the Caisson program.
In 1999-2001, I was in the military and frequently visited the Old Guard. They had a lot less horses then and still had donated riding animals. They were getting ready to switch to only using Percherons from a specific breeder. The horses look more like draft in these pictures. Back then, every horse had a stall and the barn smelled clean and fresh. They had time to ride and turn the horses out in their arena. They even trailered them to a nearby horse trail for trail riding. They had the time. Now, I don’t know what happened but it sounds like a lot more horses. The arena was pea gravel. Perhaps they converted that to temporary stalls? Maybe that’s why they have no proper turnout anymore. During the war, they were doing a lot more funerals. They must have expanded the number of horses. They probably need to downsize again and give the horses regular turnout, like they did back then.
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While that’s a good salary for most places, I’m not sure it’s enough to handle the nightmare that the paperwork and required process changes are going to bring.
I hope they find someone that changes the program for the best, but the army better give them some funds to do it with.
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Agreed. It’s a good salary, even for the region’s COL. It made me think seriously about it for long enough to imagine what a nightmare government purchasing regulations would be for making the changes needed. To say nothing of culture shift, work-life balance, etc.
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Yeah, the Army is a bureaucracy that requires lots of paperwork and regulations. But, “it ain’t nothing but a thing”. 
How un-American.
