Maryland -- The Washington Post carried a story on January 25, 2001 by Anne Kenderdine about all the pretty horses that came to Washington to parade:

Last weekend, the presidential inaugural connected two points along Pennsylvania Avenue: the White House, and the Prince George's Equestrian Center in Upper Marlboro.

With 290 of the 361 horses in the inaugural parade coming from out of town, parade organizers booked the center to be the official horse hotel.

The day before the inauguration ceremonies, the 150-acre center was filled almost to capacity.

Varying pitches of bellows and whinnies rang out from a row of stalls, where gregarious steeds peered over Dutch doors. They snorted, tossing their heads, kicking at their wooden-planked stalls, angling their muscular necks for treats.

"Our goal in this event is to make our guests feel very welcome and to make it as easy on them as we can, because they're very excited when they come," said Liz Yewell, the center's equestrian event manager, who has served as concierge for three inaugurations.

The site of a commercial racetrack from 1745 to 1972, the equestrian center was purchased and rebuilt by the county in 1980, and has been used by the Presidential Inaugural Committee for at least the past three inaugurations.

The responsibility offers the county a chance to represent Washington to military and civilian equestrians from around the country, many of whom have never visited the nation's capital.

Visitors and equine caretakers say their favorite part of the inaugural is meeting "horse people" from all over the country. Mixing at the center are women in the International Side Saddle Association, police officers, a high-school military academy's elite drill team and the country's oldest mounted troop, which once escorted George Washington.'

The travelers bring beloved pets and genteel government workers, nimble ex-racehorses, burly Clydesdales with hooves the size of pie pans and Peruna, the three-foot-tall pony and prized mascot of Southern Methodist University, Laura Bush's alma mater.

Before they arrive, travelers send their feed and bedding orders to Southern States Cooperative, the center's contracted supplier, and the 32-year-old Upper Marlboro company delivers to the stall door.

Parade participants pay their own travel costs, the center's standard $12 nightly boarding fee and Southern States' normal costs for delivered supplies. Riders feed, groom, exercise and clean up after their own horses.

Two convoys of horses drove to the parade staging area on Saturday morning, and returned to the center afterward to rest and wait for the bad weather to clear.

Local horses in the parade -- the U.S. and National Capital Park Police, along with a cavalry unit that performs military funerals at Arlington National Cemetery -- stayed at their home stables in Silver Spring, Riverdale and Fort Meyer, Va.

The center is "very well organized, well staffed, very courteous, " said Karen Luter, who was riding with the Dallas-based U.S. Marshal's Posse of North Texas, a ceremonial group that performs in period costumes. "It's nice to have people who are so knowledgeable about this process, because taking a horse on a journey of this distance is very complicated, and it's fraught with mishaps."

When horses rumble in from their road trips, from places as far as Montana, members of the Armed Forces Inaugural Committee greet them and show them to their stalls, assigned in parade order.

For better traction on slick roads, horses must have cleat-like nuggets on their shoes. Farriers examine the hoofed travelers' footwear, and veterinarians inspect the animals and their health records.

From March to November, most of the center's 350 stalls are filled with competitors at the center's Saturday shows. Year-round, some thoroughbreds use the center's five-eighths-mile practice track to train for races at Laurel or Bowie.

Yewell consolidated the thoroughbreds at one end and reserved slots for inauguration participants, opening extra stalls so parade organizers could invite more horses than could be accommodated for the 1997 parade, said Chief Chuck Sowles, a member of the Armed Forces Inaugural Committee, who organized the parade's equestrian units.

"[Yewell is] very competent . . . because she's worked with the military before and she knows how we operate," said Capt. Michael Szalma, commander of the Fort Hood, Tex., cavalry unit that performed in Ronald Reagan's 1981 inaugural parade and two Rose Bowl parades. "We know the horses will be well taken care of."

Yewell is used to hosting celebrity equines. The center has housed horses used by the U.S. and Mexican Olympic teams and handles three times the number of horses here for the inauguration at its largest show, the Capital Challenge.

Still, "this is a different event because it's one that the whole country will be looking at," said Earline Mayo, Southern States' assistant manager. "It just makes you feel good to be a part of it."