Horse, Show: Army Vet Pursues Twin Passions at UVA

But the Army had other plans. “They selected me for the Honor Guard because of my height and test scores,” he said. “Once I got there, there were specialty teams like the Tomb Sentinels, who guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and Drill Team, Continental Color Guard and the Caisson Platoon, which deals with horses.”

Of these, Kausen thought the Caisson Platoon would be the most interesting and challenging.

“It wasn’t depressing, but it could be sad. You learn that it is something you do for the family, that will make a lasting impression on them as a farewell from the military. I was doing something that was honorable.”

- Jake Kausen

 “They taught me to ride horses,” he said. “I went through their training course for 10 weeks, where they taught me everything from basic safety with horses to how to train a horse; ride a horse; how to ride two horses at the same time, called postilion riding; maintenance of the carriages and the tack; farm maintenance. It was a crash course.”

The Caisson Platoon performs eight funerals each weekday and is backlogged about eight months.

 “Altogether I did 607 funerals,” Kausen said. “We have two teams that go out every day. I would do about four a day.

“It wasn’t depressing, but it could be sad. You learn that it is something you do for the family, that will make a lasting impression on them as a farewell from the military. I was doing something that was honorable. It was something to take pride in.”

Kausen and his horses also worked as part of Wounded Warrior therapy. He has met veterans who were recovering from amputations, and those with traumatic brain injuries who have lost a sense of balance or suffered other effects.

“The improvements you see in them when you see them riding a horse or just interacting with a horse – I don’t think there is a word for it. It’s amazing.”

Kausen understood that nothing stays the same.

“Like everything in the Army, you have to move on and move up,” he said. “There was no longer a spot for me there anymore without going to do something else, and I was interested in challenging myself academically here. The prestige of the school, the value of the academics taught here, the culture, it all just blends perfectly.”

At UVA, Kausen is one of eight veterans on Grounds with scholarships from the Posse Foundation, according to Assistant Dean of Students David A. Sauerwein. This is the first academic year the Posse scholarships have been extended to veterans. There also are 38 non-veteran Posse scholars on Grounds, selected using other criteria.

Kausen is also a member of the UVA chapter of Student Veterans of America, founded by former Marine and alumnus Michael Morris and several other veterans.

“We currently have 25 members, from age 23 to 63, and are continuing to grow,” said Morris, the organization’s president. “Our main effort has been to increase UVA’s accessibility to veteran students and to build policies and infrastructure to assist veterans and their families with their unique needs in academia.”

“Do the hard right over the easy wrong. I think that can be applied to so many aspects of life.”

- Jake Kausen

Kausen came to the University to challenge himself academically in media studies, which he thinks will help him figure out where he fits in his family’s business. His great-grandfather is Chuck Jones, who created the “Looney Tunes” cartoon series. His grandmother was an animation producer and worked with Jones, and his father does live-event videography and directing for the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

“I have always had a fascination with film and television,” Kausen said. “My family is embedded in it. … I would love to go work in Hollywood.”

In addition to academics, Kausen’s love of horses drew him to a UVA polo team clinic.

“They taught me very basically how it works and how to play and I got a taste in doing that,” he said. “It is difficult, challenging and exciting at the same time. They have about 60 donated horses that we can use. And they are great horses.”

Kausen enjoys the direct competition of polo – unlike dressage or barrel racing, two events in which he competed while in the Army.

Polo is more about “working as a team and being aggressive,” he said. “And the horses love it. When there is a breakaway and the horses are trying to race each other, they are really trying to race each other. They like the competition.”

Two lessons he learned in the Army have served him well in polo and at UVA, he said: that it is better to do “the hard right over the easy wrong,” and it is important to take care of things.

“Putting someone else’s needs before your own,” he said. “When I was a non-commissioned officer in the Army, taking care of your soldiers is your top priority, over yourself. But it also plays into when you are taking care of the horses, because they can’t take care of themselves, so you have to muck out their stalls, you have to feed them hay, make sure they are OK out in the lots, give them their grain every single feeding time. You have to embrace it and do the hard right over the easy wrong. I think that can be applied to so many aspects of life. As well as leadership.”