The Houston Rodeo of Black Cowboy Culture

Long before the internet discovered the Black cowboy, Houston families were already saddling up every February.

The trail riding tradition that feeds into the city's rodeo season is a logistics operation: horses trailered across four counties, camps set up along farm roads, and generations of riders who learned the route from a grandparent.

This year the circuits are bigger, younger and better documented. Riders in their twenties run social accounts that pull tens of thousands of views, and youth programs in Acres Homes and Sunnyside have waiting lists.

What hasn't changed is the cost. Boarding, feed and vet care price out families who have ridden for decades, and the land keeps shrinking. The culture is thriving; the space for it is not.