7th Inaugural Parade  

CULVER CAVALRY LEADING ITS 7TH INAUGURAL PARADE

By B.DRUMMOND AYRES Jr., Special to the New York Times

Published: January 20, 1981

CULVER, Ind.— It has taken a farrier five painstaking weeks to make special non-slip shoes to fit the 83 all-black horses that the Culver Military Academy is sending to Washington for a single hour of precision prancing in Ronald Reagan's inaugural parade.

Such deatailed preparation is typical for the 66 riding and marching units that had the requisite professionalism and political pull to merit invitations to take part in the Pennsylvania Avenue spectacular. Requests for invitations by more than 600 other bands, choral groups and equestrian organizations were turned down by parade organizers.

The 1981 parade is to be the seventh consecutive appearance at the inauguration for the 87-year-old Culver preparatory school's Black Horse Troop, a spit-and-polish outfit that boasts of being the largest remaining cavalry unit in the United States, complete with jangling sabres and gleaming spurs that evoke images of Custer, J.E.B. Stuart and the Light Brigade.

''Not many outfits of any kind can match our record and tradition of getting invited to take part in the parade, so we don't take any chances when it comes to getting ready,'' said Maj. R. Jeffrey Honzik, director of horsemanship at the 550-student academy. A Prestigious Position

The Black Horse Troop not only once more made the final list of parade participants when the 1981 invitations went out, but it was also honored further by being assigned a position in the lead element of the procession, only a few yards behind the incoming President and the parade's grand marshal, General of the Army Omar N. Bradley.

That means the unit's horses, with their white tack and their ramrod-stiff riders clad in blue, gray and cavalry yellow, each carrying a billowing state flag or pennant, will be seen by a maximum number of spectators, especially television viewers.

''We wanted to start the parade with an impressive number,'' said Terry Chambers, the parade chairman, ''so we went for the Black Horse Troop. There just aren't any other cavalry units its size still around. And with all those state flags flying right at the beginning of things, we'll have the right symbolism.''

Mr. Chambers, a veteran of 20 Tournament of Roses parade committees and a commerce and transportation official in California when Mr. Reagan was Governor there, said he was under orders from the President-elect to keep the 1981 inaugural parade ''short and snappy,'' to hold it to about one hour rather than the usual two or three. Concentration on Quality

''To assure preciseness,'' he said, ''we've had to concentrate on quality instead of constituencies.'' Nevertheless, some of the invitations to take part in the parade appeared to be politically motivated. While campaigning last spring in Salem, N.H., Mr. Reagan promised a local high school band a place in the procession should he win the election. Parade officials balked when reminded of the promise a few weeks ago but in the end, they gave in and included the band.

Several inaugural officials complained privately that Senator Strom Thurmond, Republican of South Carolina, had seen to it that the Strom Thurmond High School Band of Edgefield, S.C. received an invitation.

By every indication, however, professionalism was the deciding factor in the Black Horse Troop's invitation. Respected Academically

Culver Military Academy, situated in rural northern Indiana, appears to have recovered well from the opposition to the military that accompanied the Vietnam War. The school, which now shares its campus with a nonmilitary girls' academy, is respected academically and has an excellent sports program. But for many of its cadets, Culver is horses.

Preparation for the inaugural parade has been a time-consuming and expensive exercise. Black Horse troopers have given up weekends to practice massing their mounts, eight abreast, on icy Indiana roads.

Cadets who choose to join the Black Horse Troop are charged $7,550 annually to attend the academy. Cadets who join artillery or infantry units pay $6,450. For the trip to Washington for the inauguration, each trooper had to come up with $550 to help pay for a charter flight, motel rooms, horse transport vans and stabling. Alumni gifts added another $250 to each cadet's contribution.