‘They Tried To Erase Us.' Taking Up Space As A Black Cowgirl In LA

When LonDen Scott goes out in public in Los Angeles with her $380 Resistol cowboy hat and spurred boots, some people think it’s a costume. But she’s been riding and training horses way longer than Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter album drop.

For her, it’s a lifestyle.

“I get it all the time even before her album dropped, but now it's like, people feel like they have a little more license, especially white people,” says Scott, who is the daughter of former Los Angeles Lakers and NBA coach Byron Scott . “They’d say, ‘Are you wearing that because Beyoncé is trying to be country’? I'm like, ‘No, sir. My knife is dirty in my pocket.’”

From Simone Biles to Beyoncé , there’s been a lot of conversation around the country and cowboy lifestyle, and the role of Black women in that space.

Scott, a cowgirl from Ladera Heights, is one of the few Black women in L.A. who is trying to stake her claim in a male-dominated world. For her and other Black cowgirls, it feels like Beyoncé’s album came just in time.

“Enough of our story gets whitewashed and erased,” Scott says. “So, if we need a little bit of something controversial, then let’s go. We're here. We've been here and it's about time we have people talking about it.”

Creating an inclusive space

Less than an hour north of the urban hustle and bustle of downtown L.A., is a quiet, rural agricultural region of Lake View Terrace, a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley where visitors smell livestock instead of gas exhaustion.

Here, Scott and a multiethnic crew of horse riders tend to their equines at a ranch they rent in the area. They are part of the newly established Cali Cowboy Company , which started out last October as a group of friends who all had a passion for horses and community.

Scott is the president and one of six founders. And they all keep busy. They have about a dozen horses they take care of, including Scott’s own gelding, 18-year-old Count on Me.

“I do have nicknames for him,” Scott says. “We call him ‘Count’ or ‘Baboy’ or ‘Stink’ or 'Mister Steal Your Mare’." Even the cowboys and cowgirls have nicknames. Scott’s nickname is “Legit 1."

One a recent Monday on the 2-acre ranch, a group that also includes Scott’s two daughters prepare the horses — including “Count on Me” — for their afternoon ride.

During a break, the rookie cowgirl on the scene, Ashley “Baby Fox” Johns, reminisced on her days growing up in Oakland and only associating horseback riding with being rich, white and structured, like many English-style riders.

Longtime friend and Cali Cowboy Company co-founder Rafael “Wicked Smaht” Casal introduced Johns to riding last year. She fell in love with the sport after meeting Scott and attending the Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo , which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

“You see Black cowgirls and you're like, ‘Yeah, we run this,’” Johns says. “It really does fit with the nature of Black women and who we are. We are incredibly resilient and strong. We will make it work. We will find a way. We’re going to do it.”

After ensuring the horses got a stretch and roll , the crew saddled them up. On a usual day, they take them up a mountain trail or ride them through the Hansen Dam trails. Every full moon, they go out on a “Moonlight Trail” in the San Gabriel mountains. They end up on a spot that Scott says the crew calls “horse heaven."

“It's really, really pretty. It oversees everything. And you feel like you're right underneath the stars,” Scott says. To bond, the group travels to bars — sometimes on horseback — to drink and listen to country music. One favorite is Desert 5 Spot in Hollywood.

“The trails are beautiful,” Scott says. “With L.A., you get kind of the best of everything. You just kind of got to know where to look.”

Outside of tending to horses and trail riding, the group has been training horses and teaching people how to ride. They’ve helped clients with Parkinson’s disease engage in equine therapy and they soon plan to host community events. The group is having their first equestrian event this Saturday in partnership with the well-known Compton Cowboys .

Showing the next generation how to get back on the saddle

Scott says she’s been riding horses ever since she was 5 years old. And throughout her time, she’s had to face people telling her that she’s not a “real cowgirl” because she doesn’t push cattle, or because she’s Black.

“Being a Black cowgirl, just being a woman, there’s a lot of mansplaining,” Scott says. “When you add in women and then women of color, who can hang with the boys and sometimes even do better, there's a lot of bruised egos that come with it. So I think even more so than Black cowboys, Black cowgirls have their own set of struggles and obstacles and things that we have to prove.”

She’s instilling the tradition — and her strength — in the next generation: her 10-and 11-year-old daughters Kyla and Laila Aklilu, who help tend to the horses when they’re not in school. They both say that their mother has inspired them.

“She’s had so many different forces and so many different injuries, that to see her still doing this is really inspiring to me,” Laila Aklilu says. “Being a cowgirl means you, no matter how many times you get hurt, you have to get back up and go on the saddle.”

Scott often gives the girls reminders so that they ride with a good, upright posture. “Don’t T-Rex … keep down and keep your hands low,” she calmly says to one of her daughters.

One of the riders on the trail is Samantha “Sissy” Wehlauch. She’s from Illinois with a mixed heritage of German and Korean. She owns a horse with braids down its mane named Scarlett and says she feels like she’s found her “tribe” with the group.

When asked about all the attention Beyoncé’s album has shined on Black cowboy culture, she says it’s about time.

“There's so much influence that Black culture has given to us in terms of different music styles, instruments like the banjo were brought over by the slaves, and that became their instrument,” Wehlauch says. “It’s great to see the homage paid back, because the original cowboys were Black and native and Mexican.”

History of Black cowboys and cowgirls

The world of cowboys and the Old West is often seen as predominantly white and male, but many historians note that back in the 1800s, 1 in 4 cowboys were Black.

In William Loren Katz’s book The Black West , he writes that Africans, Native Mexicans and Europeans were all a part of creating the cattle industry of the West and Southwest. Katz writes that an average trail crew of 11 might include two or three Black men. Some crews were all Black.

In The Black West , Katz writes that cattle crews started after the Civil War in Texas where millions of cattle roamed free and needed to be fenced in. Black men were able to get jobs managing the cattle and, as historians have noted , the term “cowboy” was first used as a derogatory word to describe them.

Eventually, the word was embraced as a universal term.

As cowboys, Black men protected and tended to cattle. Although Black people, Mexicans and Europeans often worked together, it was rare that Black cowboys could become foreman, trail boss or the ranch owner, Katz writes. The cowboys were often given the hardest jobs, and many fought to resist the positions they were in.

Scott of the Cali Cowboys says that racism persisted over the generations. "Western culture — it has not always been inclusive," she says. "You know, [white people] tried to erase us from it in the first place when we are a part of the originators of this. They weren't calling each other 'cowboy.'"

There were also fierce frontier women like “Stagecoach Mary” Fields who tended to horses and carried a rifle in the late 1800s. She became the first Black woman — and second woman — to drive a U.S. mail route.

There were others who were pioneers in settling the West — Black women in California who secured and protected their land and property like Laura Pearson , Mary Pleasant and Biddy Mason .

As more Black Americans moved west during The Great Migration, they found pockets of communities in places like Compton’s Richland Farms .

Fast forward to the early ‘80’s, real-estate agent Mayisha Akbar started the Compton Jr. Posse in Richland Farms , an urban agricultural hub for Black Angelenos since the 1950s and '60s, to keep young Black boys and men out of street gang life. Akbar’s organization is recognized as the predecessor to the Compton Cowboys riding club.

Making it accessible for all

As the urban sprawl spreads and technology continues to develop, gone are the days where cowboys are seen as pioneering, rural and rough like in the early American West era. Now the leisure and competitive sport of equestrianism — which includes Western , English and Charro horse-riding styles — are known to be expensive, and for the privileged.

Scott, the daughter of a former NBA player, said she thinks it’s a misconception that horsemanship is solely for the privileged.

“I think that’s a misconception that’s kind of already been floating around, that you have to look a certain way, have a certain status, a certain amount in the bank to really get out and do this and that’s not the case,” Scott says. “I think the only access it gave me above anybody else was just being able to travel and do different things in different places. I would say in terms of just finding where the horses were everywhere I went, that was on me.”

Long Beach cowgirl Chanel Rhodes also emphasized that horseback riding is not just for the rich. But she says she has to pass up on some things — like getting her nails done and even a few doctor’s appointments — to upkeep her horse.

“We are just trying to hold on to our lifestyle that we love,” Rhodes says. ““I understand that golf is cheaper. Playing basketball is cheaper. But I have made certain sacrifices to be able to live this life.”

Rhodes manages horses at Disneyland and is the founder of a horse wig company called Mane Tresses , but her long-term goal is to start the first Black-owned ranch in Orange County and make it affordable for people who may not otherwise have access to a stable.

Rhodes says she’s faced multiple instances of misogyny in the industry. She’s been in spaces where people would stare at her, question her knowledge of horses or avoid clapping for her during English riding competitions, her preferred style of riding.

“I just felt that sinking feeling of ‘This is why I don't belong here. What am I doing here?’ But you have to choose to conquer that,” Rhodes says.

For Scott, she feels responsibility as president of Cali Cowboy Company and its crew of 20-30 people, but she enjoys what she does.

“Horses are my passion,” Scott says. “So just being able to be a part of something allows me to lend that to a group of like-minded individuals who all have the same desire and goals in mind. It's really special. So I feel very honored.”