10th SF Loves the Cav So Much They're Training on Horses!

As regaled by the Army Times, the Ft. Carson-based 10th Special Forces Group is training on horseback.

Before dawn one recent morning, as much of the city slept, a small group of elite Fort Carson soldiers was choppered onto a mountain clearing near Colorado Springs and left to find its way down — in the dark, on horseback.

It’s an image straight out of a military thriller, but it’s exactly how Green Berets from the post’s 10th Special Forces Group have been training for upcoming operations.

The horsemanship training at the Stables at the Broadmoor — which began in late July and concluded last week — offers a rare glimpse at what the unit expects on the battlefield.

Not that you’ll hear that from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.

“This is basic training for Special Forces,” said 10th Special Forces Group spokesman Lt. Col. Steve Osterholzer, downplaying the maneuvers as “standard stuff” for soldiers who use nontraditional means to get in and out of the hostile areas where they battle insurgents under the cloak of secrecy.

Green Berets conduct confidential missions in both Iraq and Afghanistan and generally bar reporters from accompanying their troops on training. It’s hardly a secret, however, that horses and other pack animals have been used to great effect by Special Forces operatives in Afghanistan.

By: Brant