How The CREW Connects BIPOC Youth To Horses and Hopes To Change Lives Racial gatekeeping often prevents kids of color from experiencing equine sports and the great outdoors. By Maren Machles
Arocho grew up in a first-generation immigrant household. Her family is from the Dominican Republic and, while growing up she was able to occasionally go to the Dominican Republic to see family and be in nature, most of her life was in an urban setting without much access to natural spaces and outdoor activities. Because her mom was a single business woman, Arocho had to grow up at an early age, she recalls. But she wants her children to really enjoy their childhood – and part of that involves connecting with nature. Both Hannah and Raquel love horses, and their mother has made an effort to try to find opportunities for the girls to be around them and learn more. But as a family of color, they’ve experienced feeling “othered” in equine spaces, with Arocho even saying she goes out of her way to dress in a way that prevents others from confusing her as “the help.” “In certain spaces, we are looked at like we don’t belong, and I could say honestly, we probably don’t, based on their mindset,” Arocho said. “There are very few families that have opportunities like this, and that’s where I think Jenny comes in, and the CREW comes in, and opens spaces.” Gatekeeping in the Outdoors While affordability is certainly an issue, basic access has historically been a key barrier when it comes to Black, Indigenous and communities of color utilizing and partaking in outdoor activities. Dr. KangJae “Jerry” Lee, an assistant professor at the College of Natural Resources, Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management at North Carolina State University, has written and published research on how African Americans and other communities of color have systematically been cut off from accessing public parks, travel and other outdoor activities.
Photo by: Maren Machles
Across a pasture of tall grass, brown, black and white horses munch on hay and shake their manes in the wind. Behind a stable, Hannah Mordan, 9, and Raquel Mordan, 8, brush Paprika – a Welsh pony – and clean her hooves. Hannah and Raquel’s mom, Noemi Arocho, brings them to the Strofus Stock Farm almost every weekend for the girls to learn about horses and connect with nature through the CREW Urban Youth Equestrians. Paprika and Samir, an Arabian-cross gelding, belong to Jenny Benton, one of the co-founders of the CREW, which stands for Community, Relationship, Empowerment and Well-being. Benton, along with her childhood friends Kenatia Gilmer and Chauntel Allen, co-founded the CREW in order to create a space for urban American descendants of slaves, Indigenous/Native, Hispanic/Latino, Asian and all youth of color in Saint Paul and Minneapolis to discover confidence and power in themselves through horses. Hannah and Raquel were the first to sign up for lessons when the CREW opened shop in March 2021. “They often say that this is their happy place, and so that says to me that this is filling their hearts,” Arocho said. “For me, it was important for my girls to connect with nature at an early age, because it took me until later on in life, being an adult, to be able to really appreciate and love nature.”
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