Black Jack served as the riderless horse of the U.S. Army’s Caisson Platoon and appeared in more than a thousand full-honors military funerals.

Fort Myer, Virginia / Arlington National Cemetery and ceremonial sites

Story

Black Jack served as a riderless horse in U.S. full-honors military funerals, symbolising the absent rider.

The archive records both the ceremonial meaning and the animal’s own life of training, labour, retirement and death.

Black Jack is archived because animals can become central carriers of public mourning and ritual memory.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Black Jack (horse)
• Architect of the Capitol: Rediscovering Black Jack
• Wikimedia Commons: Black Jack