Culver Academies mounted units to perform in inauguration parade CULVER, Ind. (WISH) — Culver Academies Black Horse Troop and Equestriennes will again appear in the Presidential Inaugural Parade on Monday. The northwest Indiana school’s team troop has long been involved with the nation’s most sacred tradition. They first appeared in the 1913 presidential inaugural parade as the official escort for Vice President Thomas Marshall during Woodrow Wilson’s inaugural parade. Monday’s parade marks the school’s 19th appearance at the parade. It comes after the school began preparing for the trip months ago. “What looks like ten minutes has actually been about 100 hours of preparation,” the school’s Director of Horsemanship Capt. Sean Nicholls said. The parade is Nicholls’ first inaugural event, but he’s not unfamiliar with the celebratory nature of planning for an event like this. Before he began working at Culver, he worked as the riding master for the British Armed Forces’ Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment in London. He spent his dad training the riders and horses that guarded Queen Elizabeth II during parades. “I accepted this job … and my first visit to America was to start here day one as well,” Nicholls said. “I’d never been to America.” Nicholls is thrilled to have about 60 kids perform and just under 75 make the trip to Washington, D.C. The kids are thrilled, too. The Smith brothers, from Fishers, are looking forward to appearing in the parade together. Their older brother appeared in the last inauguration, though it was virtual. “It’s very exciting, because we also had another brother that did it in the other one, that was online, so it was a little different, but it’s very exciting to do with my brother,” sophomore Bode Smith said alongside Gage Smith, his senior brother. Sophomore Lucia Lindow feels it’s an opportunity of a lifetime to appear with her horse, Kataluna. “I think it is an incredible opportunity,” Lindow said. “Walking down there, being able to walk past the president like it’s once in a lifetime, and I’m so excited for it.” To properly prepare, the team has worked with every distraction possible to make sure the horses are ready. “Every practice we try to have some kind of like distraction to like desensitize the horses, like we’ve had ambulances come, a band come, like cement machines and once, we get our instructors like dress up as dinosaurs,” Lindow said. In true Culver Academies fashion, the team has thought of everything and can’t wait to bring Hoosier hospitality to the home of America’s leaders.