Watch as seven horses ride by pulling the flag-draped casket on a caisson. Look closer at that eighth horse, the one behind the pallbearers.

That horse is special.

While the other Percheron horses are white, the eighth one is black and carries a pair of riding boots facing backward in its stirrups.

Today Strom Thurmond is being given the hero's sendoff -- that of the warrior who will never ride again.

The legendary former senator, governor, judge and World War II hero will receive an honor reserved for the rank of full colonel and above.

His processional includes a caisson -- a horse-drawn, two-wheeled wagon once used to hold the ammunition box for a cannon -- about 40 soldiers and airmen and music by the S.C. National Guard Processional band.

Thurmond was a retired major general in the U.S. Army Reserve. This rank entitled him to one of the older traditions in military funeral processions.

In a gesture that signifies the fallen officer looking back to his soldiers in farewell, there will be an empty saddle with a pair of boots reversed in the stirrups.

The black caparisoned, riderless, horse also will have two stars on the saddle representing Thurmond's rank in the Reserve, said Buddy Sturgis, director of the S.C. Military Department Museum.

The Bachmund Battery, a group of Civil War re-enactors, are to ride the horses that will pull the Army caisson carrying Thurmond from the State House to First Baptist Church.

Another caisson will carry Thurmond from the courthouse to the grave site in Edgefield.

Percheron horses have been used since World War I, when they were the breed of choice for transporting heavy loads. The Army trains the large draft horses.

The procession will be led by the 40-person honor guard, followed by the caisson, pallbearers, the riderless horse and the band bringing up the rear.