“I said, because I don’t think I am good enough it’s just what I’ve always done with my horses since I was a child, I’ve evolved. He said you are good enough.”
Growing up in the West Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia, Erin Brown, also known as the “Concrete Cowgirl” took a liking to horses at a young age– one that would transform her life for decades. In 2020, the ex-police civilian for the Mounted Patrol Department went on to run her nonprofit full time, Philadelphia Urban Riding Academy, and also founded her horse training company, Concrete Horsemanship, alongside her business partner Michael Upshur. Upshur, the Barn Operations Manager for the Philadelphia Urban Riding Academy (PURA), joined alongside Brown to frame lasting community partnerships that support the lives of inner-city youth in cultivating interests in horses and gaining unfiltered knowledge on the Art of Horsemanship.
Also, having recently acquired the Executive Director position in 2019 at the Philadelphia Riding Academy, Brown’s journey to success has been one paved with ups, downs, and an unwinding journey of finding freedom through serving her community.
Brown was introduced to horses in the early 90s at the age of six through her father’s welding company, Komplete Welding Inc., which offered welding services to local horse owners. Black cowboys would frequent Al Brown’s shop for skilled welding repairs to their horse trailers. Gaining an interest in the craft, her father decided to begin taking Brown and her brother to a barn located on the 2600 block of W. Fletcher Street in the Strawberry Mansion section of the city, and it became ritual. Every weekend, the family would make the trip and visits quickly began to form connections with seasoned cowboys, Wayne Harris, Albert Lynch, and Sharon “Tweety” Turner, who took Brown in as family, teaching her the ins and outs of horse riding and stable life. The consistent exposure formed into a passion, and she would later go on to attend W.B. Saul Agricultural High School in Philadelphia, majoring in Equine Science.
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