SOMERSET, Texas – You don’t have to know how to ride a horse to attend New Tactics 6, a horseback riding clinic in Somerset, but you do have to be a veteran or first responder.
Jim Schaale and his wife, Tammy, started the horse-riding clinic, a nonprofit, in 2018.
“Our purpose was to engage veterans, service members and first responders to come out and ride, to get them out of their environments, to give them a place to kind of relax and to be free of everyday worries,” he said.
Every Saturday, veterans show up for a three-hour clinic. It costs $15 and includes basic horse-riding training, but it’s more than just a class — at least, that’s what Schaale hopes.
“Hopefully, they learn something about themselves and the horse that helps transition that for life,” he said.
The name New Tactics 6 has a specific meaning, Schaale explained.
“In the military, we do all kinds of tactics. So we wanted your life to be a new tactic, you know, something that you’re going to change in your life,” he said. “And the six stands for ‘We’ve got your six.’ So that’s why we’re here and always have our warriors’ back.”
James Holbrook started by taking classes and eventually transitioned to become a peer instructor. He’s there to motivate other combat veterans.
“I can truly say that we have made people’s days and weeks and months livable and somewhat to where they can come back every week, dump their week off, relax, and then start fresh the next week,” Holbrook said. “For veterans that have PTSD, it’s very hard to say yes to a lot of things. And for us, it’s hard to come in and say, ‘Yeah, I’m going to come.’ But when they finally do come and they see it, that barrier breaks, that PTSD really breaks in and allows them to kind of open up and be around other veterans and say, ‘I don’t have to have that ego anymore. I can take off that shield and just be here.’”
Click here to book a Saturday session.