The Truth About Black Cowboy Culture that Nobody Taught You with Drake LeBlanc sponsored by YETI

What if the story of the American cowboy is bigger than the version most of us were handed?

In this episode, Noëlle sits down with Drake LeBlanc, a Creole cowboy from Louisiana, filmmaker, and cultural preservationist. The conversation that unfolds is about history, identity, and what it really means to live a culture rather than wear it.

Drake was raised in a community where horses are not a hobby or an aesthetic. They are Sunday trail rides, music in the air, food cooking by trailers, land passed down through generations, and families riding together. They are belonging.

Together, they explore the untold history of Black cowboys, how the image of the American cowboy was reshaped through media, and what was lost when culture became costume.

This conversation is not just about the past. It is about how the stories we are handed down, the way they shape how we see ourselves, and who we believe belongs in the horse world.

In this episode you will learn:

Creole identity and language in Louisiana
Haitian Creole cultural parallels
Native American symbolism in Western fashion and saddle design
The history of cattle herding practices rooted in African tribes
The book Drake would read to the Horse World - Black Ranching Frontiers: African Cattle Herders of the Atlantic World, 1500-1900

About Drake LeBlanc: Drake LeBlanc is a Lafayette, Louisiana-based filmmaker, documentarian, and photographer. He is one of the most compelling cultural voices working today in the preservation of Creole heritage and black cowboy history. His documentary Footwork has brought international attention to the Louisiana Creole cowboy tradition and the Louisiana trail rides that keep black cowboy culture alive every weekend across the American South.

You can find Drake on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lovebenoir/

Drake's film work can be found here https://filmfreeway.com/FootworkLA

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to Dear Horse World wherever you listen, leave us a review — it genuinely helps more people find these conversations — and share this episode with someone who needs to hear the real story of cowboys in America.

This episode is generoulsy sponsored by:

YETI

Made for early mornings in the barn and long days in the saddle. Whether you're hauling feed, chasing daylight on the trail, or loading up for a weekend on the road, YETI coolers and drinkware are built to handle it.

No shortcuts. No compromise.

Just gear that works as hard as you do.

Explore more at YETI.com | @YETI | facebook.com/YETI

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction & the moment on the Atchafalaya Basin that set the tone

03:00 "I know my community" — why deep roots change everything

04:00 What is a Creole cowboy? Defining Creole culture and Louisiana's gumbo pot

07:00 What is a parish? Louisiana's Napoleonic Code explained

08:00 The vulnerability of introducing yourself as a Creole cowboy

10:00 Why Drake feels called to educate even when it's exhausting

12:00 The real history of black cowboy culture Hollywood erased

14:00 Why "1 in 4 cowboys were Black" is actually an undercount

15:00 "Cowboy" was a derogatory term — the truth about who built the West

17:00 What Hollywood took from Black cowboy culture and what it missed

19:00 Why money can't buy the spiritual bond between horse and rider

22:00 Tribal designs, turquoise, and the hidden origins of Western style

26:00 The spiritual meaning of turquoise in Native American horse culture

29:00 "You not pap" — live your culture or kill it, there's no in between

32:00 Shoutout to Chris Lewis & reining horses in the Creole community

37:00 Cultural gentrification in the horse world — what it is and why it matters

42:00 Advice for horse communities feeling threatened by change

45:00 Feeling alone in the horse world — Drake's answer

47:00 "Move to Louisiana" — and what community actually looks like

51:00 Time and intention: the only two things a horse truly needs

53:00 How to be brave when you're afraid to speak up

56:00 Find something you fear MORE — Drake's philosophy on courage

58:00 When Drake realized the outside world didn't know Black cowboys existed

1:07:00 Trail rides, thousands of riders, and how Creole horse culture thrives

1:11:00 Zydeco music, food, and why making it fun kept the culture alive

1:13:00 Rapid fire: book rec, most iconic horse, most undervalued skill

1:17:00 Greatest horseman of all time and mares vs stallions vs geldings

Det här avsnittet är hämtat från ett öppet RSS-flöde och publiceras inte av Podme. Det kan innehålla reklam.

Avsnitt(100)

When the Bridle Comes Off, the Truth Comes Out | A Letter to Lady (Unbridled)

I wrote my mare a letter the day she came to me. Out in the field with her, with G grazing nearby, I read it to her out loud for the first time. It is the most honest thing I have said about horsemans...

6 Okt 15min

The Horse Husband: How Evan Went From Terrified to the Barn Every Day ] No Stupid Questions with Evan the Groom

The same patience it takes to earn a horse's trust is the patience Evan the Groom brings to teaching the rest of us. He came to horses the way most people never do — from the outside, with no backgrou...

29 Sep 55min

How Steffen Peters Trains a Horse: Self-Carriage, Groundwork & a New Stallion (Part 2)

A horse has two choices. Learn to accept the bit, or fight it for the rest of its life. That's Steffen Peters, and this is the half where his hands are on the reins. If you heard Part 1, you met the m...

21 Sep 53min

Steffen Peters: The Six-Time Olympian on the Dark Place Behind the Medals (Part 1)

When did you make it? Ask most riders that question and they'll point to a medal. Steffen Peters points somewhere else — to the darkest place he has ever been, and the way back out of it. This is Part...

16 Sep 50min

She Remade Black Beauty. Now She's Fighting to Save America's Wild Horses | Ashley Avis

There's one horse you would cross the country for. You know the one. The horse who found you when you had the least to give and somehow handed you back to yourself. Now hold that horse in your mind, a...

2 Sep 48min

What this Dressage Rider Learned From a Cowboy - Kasey Perry-Glass

You get the thing you chased for five years. And the ride is the worst one you've ever put down. Kasey Perry-Glass reached the Olympic Games on the horse she bought to take her there — Doublé — and ca...

26 Aug 1h 21min

The Move Most People Get Backwards With a Cow — and What It Teaches About Horse Training | Martin Black (Pt. 2)

You think the cow is the hard part. She isn't. You are. You get ahead of her to turn her, and she beats you to the herd every time. You spur, you pull, the horse's head comes up, and now nobody is wat...

17 Aug 1h 6min

Why You Should Stop Patting Your Horse | Martin Black on Western Horse Training

We pat our horses to tell them they did well. Martin Black says the horse would rather we kept our hands to ourselves. He has spent a life inside western horse training — starting close to five hundre...

10 Aug 1h