Historical Society Will Mount Up To Ride With Horse Guard

On Monday, April 10, at 7:30 pm, in the community room of C.H. Booth Library, 25 Main Street, Newtown Historical Society will present its next monthly program. The April presentation will feature a local institution both historical and current in its nature: the Second Governor’s Horse Guard, stationed on the Fairfield Hills campus in Newtown.

The presentation will be offered by Sergeant J. Rosa, a member of the guard, who will be assisted by three other troop members. Each will be in guard uniform, and will be bringing saddles and other equipment from as early as 1808, along with photos showing both the guard’s past and present functions.

Joining Sergeant Rosa will be 1st Lt Steven DeFrisse, who will be wearing a Colonial riding uniform and will talk about the guard during the Colonial era; Sergeant Karen DeFreese will have a saddle from 1808, and will discuss old equipment; Captain Annei Macca will discuss the guard’s calendar for the upcoming year; and Pvt 1st Class Ralph Frear will discuss the military camp members of the guard visit annually.

The program will also include the display of a mannequin dressed in a uniform from 1808, two additional saddles and two bridles from the guard’s collection, and photographs of troops past and present.

The Second Governor’s Horse Guard was originally based in New Haven, the downstate match for the First Horse Guard based in the capitol region. Chartered in 1808, the Second has served the state continuously since, as both an active military unit and a ceremonial escort for the governor.

It remains a unit of the Connecticut National Guard, and as such it has been called to active duty in times of both national and state crisis, serving the state during hurricanes, floods, and other times when civilian control is stretched thin. On the federal level, the Second was called to full military service as a cavalry unit during the Pancho Villa Expedition on the Mexican border in 1916; during the First World War, the unit served in Europe as a machine gun company, after army headquarters determined it was too difficult to ship the unit’s horses overseas to keep it as a cavalry unit.

With the passing of the horse cavalry, the unit was again called to other duties in World War II, this time as antiaircraft personnel in Australia. The unit remains one of only two horse cavalry military troops in the United States.

But while the Second has made its contribution to active military duty, its most obvious presence is as a ceremonial guard and parade unit, and it once served as Lafayette’s escort on his return to America in 1824. In addition to its duties as the governor’s guard, the troop often appears at local functions and parades, including Newtown’s own Labor Day Parade. Nationally, the troop has been invited to participate in the Presidential Inaugural Parades in 1977, 1981, 1985, and 2001.

Troop members must pass both military and equestrian standards and continued training.  Currently, the Second is composed of 40 men and women, and 36 horses, a mixed group of thoroughbreds, Arabians, quarters, Morgans and mustangs. All horses are donated or rescued, including wild mustangs from the West. To maintain the proper ceremonial appearance, horses must be at least 15.3 hands tall, and be brown or black.

Newtown Historical Society programs are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served at the program’s conclusion. 

For further information, call the historical society at 426-5937.