Here is a good read.
“”””But if one looked towards the caisson, the Army artillery cart traditionally used to bear the coffin in military funerals, there was a truly rare and moving sight that will never occur again in American history.
The caisson was pulled by four magnificent Army horses. Close to them, to the sound of slowly beating, muffled drums, a soldier on foot led a riderless horse named Sergeant York, to represent the fallen Commander-in-Chief. There in the stirrups, turned backward, were Reagan’s Model 1940 US Cavalry riding boots and spurs. This old Cavalry practice continued a Roman tradition in which a slain leader symbolically faces and salutes his men on the way to his final resting place,
Ronald Reagan is the last President who was a veteran of the United States Horse Cavalry, a living link to the mounted Cavalry of American mythology. Though his enemies tried to deride him as a make-believe cowboy, Reagan was a genuine Trooper- a US Cavalry soldier trained to ride into battle on horseback. His riding was not an affectation put on for show to conform to an idolized, mythologized idea of the Old West. It was the legacy of his Cavalry service, a clue to understanding the man. Yet surprisingly, little has been written on Reagan, the Cavalry Trooper.””””
https://discover.hubpages.com/politics/Trooper-Reagan-The-Gippers-US-Cavalry-Legacy
Thanks.