Lexus Magazine, Quarter 1, 2004

URBAN COWBOY

New York City Federation of Black Cowboys member Clarence "Solo" Clemons comes from horse country. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, to parents of Cherokee and African descent on both sides, he started riding young and took to it quickly. His uncle, a preacher, had a business renting "hack" horses by the hour. That's where Clemons developed his passion for horses and riding.

"I always liked animals, but a horse you ride, so you bond with it," Clemons says. "Each horse is a new learning experience and has a different personality. They all have different gaits, different cues they pick up, and different things they fear."

His family moved to Cincinnati just before he became a teenager, but he still spent summers with his uncle and the horses. He went to college at Tennessee State in Nashville to study business, and picked up the country-western look and lifestyle: cowboy boots, broad brimmed hats, and honky-tonk music. He moved to New York City in 1985 to find work, and started looking around for horses. One day he and a friend drove by the Cedar Lanes Stables in Howard Beach (rimmed by a white picket fence), an anomaly that sits along the highways and bypasses that connect Brooklyn and Queens. His friend said, "That's where the black cowboys are." They pulled in to check it out, and Clemons has been with the Federation ever since. He trains the horses and monitors their health.

As a member of the FBC, he also rides in rodeos and parades, and educates New York City children about the role of black cowboys in American history.

"It's important that the kids know the first cowboys were black," Clemons says. "Black people took care of the livestock, so they became excellent riders. They must have made the job look pretty good."

The black cowboys keep the legacies of African Americans in the Old West alive in New York City. They teach children about the fearless acts of rodeo star Wild Bill Pickett, the first person to "bulldog" a steer, and Mary Fields, the stagecoach driver who ran a trail through the Rocky Mountains.

"Around here the people are proud of the black cowboys," Clemons says, "Despite everything this city has to offer, there's no place else I'd rather spend my days, than right here at the stables, riding horses."