REAL CAVALRY OFFERS A LOOK BACK IN TIME

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 18, 1993                   TAG: 9304160455
SECTION: TRAVEL                    PAGE: F-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JEANNE LEBLANC
DATELINE: AVON, CONN.                                LENGTH: Medium
REAL CAVALRY OFFERS A LOOK BACK IN TIME
The ancient drama of mounted warfare flourishes in the weekly drills of the First Company Governor's Horse Guard, the oldest cavalry company in the United States.
Lines of uniformed riders advance on dark horses in perfectly spaced rows, charge in a tornado of hooves, turn in precise formation and gallop nose-to-tail in graceful arcs. Their drills are drawn from military manuals that were last used in combat 50 years ago on Bataan, in the Philippines, when a line of U.S. Cavalry charged a column of Japanese soldiers.
New England is rife with re-enactments, from reproduced Colonial villages to mock Revolutionary War battles. But this is real, a 215-year-old tradition that never died.
The company welcomes visitors to its headquarters in Avon, a suburb of Hartford in central Connecticut. This is no overdeveloped tourist attraction. There are no snack bars, no T-shirts, no admission charge.
Children may be charmed by the chance to pet some horses but they may remember longer their glimpse into the full drama of the cavalry.
Visitors also are welcome at the company's Horse Cavalry Museum in a shopping complex a few miles from the stables. It is full of saddles, kit bags and photographs of cavalry companies from around the country and the globe.
The main attraction is the saddle of Gen. Israel Putnam, major general of the North Continental Army Forces under George Washington. It is a hard shell of leather much like the modified McLellan saddles the First Company rides on today.
The First Company formed in 1778 when several of Hartford's leading citizens volunteered to protect and escort the governor. They were on hand to meet President Washington when he visited Hartford in October 1789, and the president noted so in his diary.
"At Weathersfield, we were met by a party of the Hartford light horse and a number of gentlemen from the same place with Col. Wadsworth at their head, and escorted to Bull's Tavern where we lodged," Washington wrote.
Even today, the company's troopers and officers are enlisted military personnel, members of one of the four remaining units of the Connecticut militia. Their function is now purely ceremonial, a matter of accompanying the governor or representing him in parades or at other events, including presidential inaugurations.
But it is still a cavalry company, trained and outfitted for military maneuvers on horseback. The riders observe the most arcane cavalry traditions, from the precise placement of the kit bag next to the stall during grooming to the prohibition against riding on Friday, the cavalry horse's traditional day of rest.
The company rides only dark horses, from bay to black, for the sake of uniformity on parade. All 30 horses have been donated, many retired from careers as racehorses.
It is possible to catch the horse guard on parade throughout Connecticut and New England, particularly during the summer. But the flavor of the company's long history emerges most fully on the drill field, where commands echo from lieutenant to sergeant to corporal and hooves drum on the turf.
They are not imitating a cavalry company but being one, and time dissolves in the spirit of it.\ \ To get to horse guard headquarters:
From Interstate 84, take Exit 39 to Connecticut 4 west and follow it to the Unionville section of Farmington to Connecticut 167 north. Follow 167 for about four miles, taking a sharp left turn along the way, and take a right onto Arch Road. The sign for the horse guard headquarters will be on the left.
Drills are held every Thursday at 7:30 p.m., even in rain or snow, and last approximately 90 minutes. Riders often drill in small groups on Saturday mornings.\ \ To the Horse Cavalry Museum:
the horse guard headquarters, take a right on Arch Road and a right on Connecticut 167. Follow 167 for about two miles to Connecticut 44. Take a right on 44 and follow it for about two miles to Connecticut 10. Take a left on 10. The museum is in the Riverdale Farms plaza on the right, about a mile up Connecticut 10.
The museum is open Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

Jeanne Leblanc is a free-lance travel writer who lives in Burlington, Conn.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB