Three year old Liam Thorpe is one of the Philly kids who will grow up with horses thanks to the Philadelphia Urban Riding Academy. Credit: Suzanne Bush.
Philadelphia boasts lots of traditions, from cheese steaks to Tastykakes, from the Dad Vail Regatta to the Reading Terminal Market. There is art and music and history—celebrated in world-class museums and concert venues. These traditions in aggregate offer a portrait of a city that is rich in culture, history and whimsy.
One of Philadelphia’s cultural icons has been celebrated in art and in Hollywood. Nope, it’s not Rocky. It’s Philadelphia’s urban cowboys and Concrete Cowgirls, riding a century-old tradition into the future—overcoming obstacles as mundane as traffic and complex as neighborhood gentrification. And now, aided by a new non-profit, Philadelphia Urban Riding Academy (PURA), www.thepura.org, a permanent home is on the horizon. Architects are drawing up plans that will turn an aging bocce court on North Daggett Street into a stable. Not just any stable, though, according to Erin Brown, Executive Director of PURA, “the most epic riding facility in the City of Philadelphia!”
PURA worked with the City of Philadelphia and City Councilman Curtis Jones, Jr., to acquire the property, which is on the edge of Haddington Woods and Cobbs Creek Park. There is space behind the building for pasture, and the trails start just outside the building which will become the barn. Brown says there will be enough space inside for about 20 stalls. “The backyards have been gentrified,” Brown explains. “PURA is an extension—an outgrowth of the original Fletcher Street [Stable]. It’s going to carry on the legacy of the Philadelphia urban cowboys.”
Focus on the Future
On a recent hot, humid day Brown and several of her friends and PURA supporters stood outside the Nicholas A. Pucciarelli Senior Citizen Bocce Court and talked about what this iteration of urban riding means to them. Ivannah-Mercedes, the actress who played Esha in the film Concrete Cowboy reminded Brown that they were both members of Future Farmers of America (FFA) as youngsters. The organization’s vision continues to inspire them. “FFA provides the next generation of leaders who will change the world.”
Ivannah-Mercedes says that her opportunity as an actress was a direct result of her ability to ride a horse, which she learned at Fletcher Street. While she may not stay in Philadelphia, she says her heart and hopes will always be there. “Regardless of what happens in my life, I want to know there is an organization here that is going to help my nephews to learn about this culture that I love so much and give them experiences to help them. Half of my acting came about because I rode horses here in Philadelphia. It would be arrogant of me to ignore that.”
Liam Thorpe, at three years old the youngest Concrete Cowboy, takes lessons at Belmont Stables. His grandmother, Rita Thorpe, reminded the group of the larger mission at hand. “The A in PURA stands for Academy,” she says. PURA will offer after-school tutoring, and they’re discussing a potential partnership with Morehouse College to provide college readiness counseling.
“Basically, we’re bridging worlds of diversity,” Brown says. “Here we’ll be able to have a broader reach and more diverse opportunities—not just for African American youth, but for people in general.”
She says she’s anxious to reach “a different side of the city, where there haven’t been horses for close to 30 years. Kids need outlets and they need recreation and I want to be a part of that to help a child.”
It Began with a Movie
Concrete Cowboy, recently released on Netflix, stars Edris Elba. The film, directed by Philadelphian Ricky Staub, has a back-story almost as compelling as the story captured by the film.
Staub was interested in the urban riders at Fletcher Street Stable, in Strawberry Mansion, and became friends with one of the riders there, Eric Miller. Together they planned a movie about how the Fletcher Street Stable changed the courses of young lives by giving inner-city young people a safe place to be, mentors who enforced rules and the opportunity to ride and care for horses. And they also planned a future for the urban riders—a future that would be immune to gentrification and the vagaries of city traffic. They created PURA, to create and sustain the permanent home for current riders and future generations of urban equestrians. Tragically, before filming started, Miller was killed.
Brown was also a longtime friend of Miller’s and she took over as Executive Director of PURA after Miller’s death. She had started riding at Fletcher Street as a six-year-old and has competed successfully both locally and nationally.
Raising Money, Raising Hopes
Brown says the board of directors is working behind the scenes to secure corporate sponsorships, and she has worked with Missy Clark of North Run in Vermont and Florida, to promote Concrete Cowgirls, a program to educate equestrians by opening doors to diverse worlds within the equine industry. They have a GoFundMe page set up to help raise the $2 million they believe the project will cost. People can also donate through the organization’s website, www.thepura.org.
Brown says that attracting kids to the programs will be the easiest part of the process. “They’ll see horses here. They just always wander into the barn. History repeats itself,” she says. When the kids come in, the process will be very straightforward. “Here’s a release form, take this to your mother. See you tomorrow.” She says that she plans to ask a lot in terms of commitment and dedication of the young people who come to the barn. “Coming from growing up on Fletcher Street, I want to bring a more structured environment than I and my peers had growing up. We discovered as children that we would have done a lot more things they asked of us because we wanted to be around the horses.”
“It’s such a perfect cause,” Rita Thorpe says. “And it needs to be in more than one place. When I was a kid there were barns everywhere. We all kind of knew each other. The world was a better place when there were more horses.”