Down South, a Trail Ride is a Party on Horseback — and So Much More
When outsiders hear that Drake LeBlanc spends his weekends in his hometown, Lafayette, La., trail riding with friends, they might be forgiven if they imagine that the 27-year-old horseman meanders through the woods nose-to-tail with a few other cowboys. After all, that's what 'trail ride' often means elsewhere: a placid, al fresco mounted stroll.
Yet when LeBlanc, a documentary filmmaker, rides his Tennessee Walking Horse, Koupé, it is alongside sometimes hundreds or even thousands of other riders, most of whom are Creole or Black like him. They ride to the beat of Zydeco music thumping from sound systems on flatbed trailers that wend between the trees alongside the horses. And they snack on pork steak sandwiches handed over by chefs tending smokers in the backs of pickup trucks trundling beside the herd.
Across the American South, this version of a trail ride has grown from a traditional community event into a collective show of Black horsemanship, a celebration with the vibe of a cookout astride, with its own line dances, theme songs and swag.
'I think the trail ride is one of the most beautiful representations of the complexity of Louisiana culture,' LeBlanc said in an interview in May. 'You can see us pay homage to our ancestors and the people who come before us that were share croppers and cattle ranchers and cowboys and people who did the hard work. And you can also see how these often-oppressed communities make the most out of what they have access to,' he added. 'And how we continue to preserve our culture.'
With scores of Black trail ride clubs from Texas to the Carolinas alone, according to some counts, such an extravaganza can be found cantering any weekend across many Black Southern communities. They have blossomed from more sedate, family-reunion-style affairs of decades ago to days-long horsy shindigs that can draw up to 15,000 people, like the Ebony Horsemen Trail Ride does in Shelby, N.C.
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