PETER: The over one hour long
director’s cut version of this video
is posted on my Patreon page.
The link is below in the description.
♪ country ♪
Good morning, guys.
Greater Los Angeles,
over 18 and a half million people
in this massive basin.
Pretty much every culture,
every type of lifestyle is here
including cowboys.
And I’m not talking about near
the mountains on the periphery of the city.
I’m talking about cowboys
smack in the middle of Compton.
So let’s go meet these guys.
I don’t know how they’re doing it.
Cowboying in Compton.
Let’s do this.
♪ country ♪
PETER: Here we are, guys,
Compton, South Central.
The guys told me come in the back here.
[nervous] And we have a German…
that’s looking friendly.
That’s a good sign.
Hector?
-Hey, Peter.
-This is the pad?
-Yep, this is it.
Got a lot more to see on that end.
PETER: All right,
so it rained last night quite a bit.
And just to refresh us all,
we’re in the heart of Compton.
[rooster crowing]
PETER: Rogelio, right?
ROGELIO: Yes, sir.
What’s up, Peter, how you doing?
-Good.
JOHAN: Welcome… Johan.
PETER: Johan, all right.
ROGELIO: In the community
of Richland Farms
I think there’s about 400 homes.
It’s the only place in all of LA County
that is zoned for agriculture.
So you can have your horses, your cows,
and you won’t find that
anywhere else in LA County.
[roosters crowing]
PETER: You’re all teachers, right?
HECTOR: Yes.
So why are you doing this too?
-It’s a passion, man.
-It’s a passion?
-It really is, it comes from a passion.
That’s Rubio by the way,
if you want to meet Rubio.
-Rubio?
-She’s been with me for four years now.
She’s the first horse I officially owned.
-Okay.
-And we’re hoping that through
the work we do here as Connecting Compton
we’re able to create those opportunities,
you know?
-And Connecting Compton,
which you just gave me this awesome hat…
What we’re gonna get into today.
Well, we’ll learn along the way today.
-Yeah.
-But the basic nuts and bolts of it is…
…helping kids who might not have
a great outlet.
-Yeah.
-Find a passion or meaning
in ranching, or horses, or cowboying.
Is that… Do I got that right?
-Yes, of course.
We want to be able to give these kids,
the youth, a purpose.
A lot of times they find themselves lost
and hopefully we’re able to help with that.
-Okay.
-And also involve them in our community
that is very limited.
So if we’re able to pay that forward
we’re doing our little part.
-Okay, so 99% of Los Angeles has no clue
that this culture exists probably, right?
-I would say that confidently.
PETER: Are we hitting the streets, guys?
JOHAN: Of course, man.
PETER: We’re hitting the concrete?
-That’s what we got right here in Compton.
-I’m interested to see how this plays out.
HECTOR: Because we don’t get
a lot of water here… or enough water,
they don’t see a lot of puddles
and so often times
they’re bombproof when it comes to cars.
ice cream trucks, loud noises,
whatever, dirt bikes.
Then they see some puddles
and they’re like,
“What is that?”, you know?
PETER: Okay, so totally urban horses?
-Yeah.
-Snow would freak them out?
-They would get scared.
Of course, they would get scared of
the things that, you know,
maybe others are accustomed to.
-But they’re okay with
cherry bomb exhaust systems and loud bass?
-They’re okay with all that stuff, yep.
-Okay.
Tupac with the subwoofers, no problem.
PETER: Just another day
riding horses in Compton.
ROGELIO: This neighborhood
is different than all of LA
because horses, naturally,
just for whatever reason
just calm everything.
Kids will come running out of the houses,
come say, “Hi.”
PETER: Oh, right.
-If there’s gang beef,
we can go through any hood in Compton.
It’s no problem ’cause obviously
you’re just on the horse.
People want to come see the horse,
people ask if I can jump off for a photo.
So it’s all good.
PETER: So the horse diffuses
any heavy energy?
-Yeah, definitely.
-That’s cool.
Danny has my horse ready.
DANIEL: That’s it.
PETER: Here we go.
I told the guys I don’t ride horses.
-His name is Papas.
-Papas?
-Yeah, that’s his name.
-I don’t ride horses so they’re like,
“We can get you a bike.”
So if I never have kids, this is
the reason why, after today. [chuckles]
All right, you guys ready?
♪ country ♪
[hooves on pavement]
-Juan Dominguez owned the majority
of the land in Southern California
and in agreement with Reverend Compton
they agreed in a deal
that this stay zoned agricultural
because it was actually
one of the best spots across the space.
It had farms, it had a water well.
Still has its own natural water well.
It’s a really nicely developed city
but unfortunately
it’s gone unmaintained for decades.
DANIEL: So the water well
belonged to this community.
So the city made a deal
that if you notice there’s no sidewalks.
-Okay.
-So they were gonna upgrade our streets,
put horse signs, sidewalks
if we would unite
this water well with the city.
They did it and guess what,
we don’t have sidewalks.
-Hello.
PETER: I see a lot of smiles
but does anyone get pissed off
with you guys riding horses around?
-No.
You know what though, there’s, like,
more in the main streets,
there is people who are very disrespectful.
This street right now, Greenleaf,
we know as a fast street.
-Yeah.
-They literally try
to scare you with their car.
At night time it’s dangerous
’cause there’s no lights or signals
that you’re riding a horse.
So they can’t really see you.
-Do you ride at night?
-Yeah, we do.
ROGELIO: One of the bad things though
is that
I don’t know if you’ve seen it
but they do street takeovers
with cars, fast cars.
-I’ve seen those, yeah.
-They do them over here.
So they do them in these intersections
and the city and the sheriffs
really haven’t had
a really great response to it and so…
-They just let them go these days?
-It’s just untouched at this point.
-Oh, God.
-It’s deemed too risky
for them to actually go in.
We ride our horses around town.
We have our families out.
We have kids out.
Kids that are, you know, five, six,
already on horseback
and unfortunately the City of Compton
doesn’t have a strong relation
with the Sheriff’s department right now
and so…
-There’s beef between the two?
-There’s beef.
I don’t know if the defund the police
thing had anything to do with it or…
But we see less presence
of police out since.
-Do people here want more cops or less?
-Depends who you ask.
-Okay.
-If you ask an older person
they’re gonna want more police.
If you’re gonna ask a teen
they’re gonna say less.
-Right.
-But in general, there’s already
a really low presence of police here.
Not that it’s needed.
It’s safe and chill.
-It’s safe?
You’re telling me Compton’s safe?
-This part.
For us on horseback.
-So even Compton itself,
regions within it can be totally different
from one part to the next?
-Yeah, ’cause I don’t think
people know how big Compton is.
Compton, Long Beach, these are huge cities.
There’s pockets of Compton
that have really nice homes.
The residents and everyone
takes care of their lawn and property.
But they’re obviously
treated differently by the city.
PETER: Thank you, ma’am.
She’s lovin’ it.
-Yeah.
-She was all smiles.
-Yeah.
Check out the artwork
on your left hand side.
PETER: Artwork, where?
Oh yeah, cool.
So it’s just really embedded
in the culture here?
ROGELIO: This is what it is, yeah.
-So what’s the ethnic makeup
of Compton these days?
-Majority, like off of the census,
it was over 70% Latino-Hispanic
in the City of Compton.
-More than black?
-More than black folks.
And it’s just a working class
environment here in Compton.
You know, what we’ve seen and then
the community here in Richland Farms.
And so a lot of the people here
obviously work all week.
They have Saturday and Sunday off
and then they get to spend it
with their families, with their horses,
with their animals
and then get right back to the grind,
and get to work.
[Rogelio coughs]
[Truck revs engine]
-What’s he doing?
-He likes to be tough.
PETER: He’s flexing a little bit.
HECTOR: He’s got more horsepower.
[Peter laughs]
PETER: That was a good old man joke,
“He’s got more horsepower.”
[Rogelio laughs]
PETER: He’s flexing.
So how much are one of these homes, guys?
-So in Richland Farms
this house would cost…
The house itself for the square footage
would roughly be around 500
but in Richland Farms,
’cause you have the agricultural zoning
and you have the more space.
They’re getting closer
to the million dollars.
These here are sitting on more than
maybe about a third of an acre and more.
DANIEL: Yeah, from a third and up.
-And they’re a million dollars.
They’re not hitting a million dollars,
we had one that just sold for nine.
-So if people have their mortgages
paid off, everyone’s a millionaire in here?
-It’s not really that, you really have
a lot of humble people living here.
-Well they’re only a millionaire
when they cash out.
-Our group has made sure that,
“Hey guys, do not sell your property.”
“Be part of its growth.”
We wanna improve it.
-Oh, yeah.
-Because we want to have
something nice for ourselves too out here.
-So there’s a big challenge
with trying to preserve this culture here
and keeping it going the next generations?
HECTOR: Most definitely.
-The few times I’ve been to Compton,
you know, apart from the sirens
and the things Compton is known for
is the community.
Everyone seems very cool.
Like, neighbors seem to know neighbors.
I’m sure there’s all sorts of problems
like anywhere but I don’t know.
It’s just always been not a bad vibe.
MAN: Buenos dias.
PETER: What are you getting out of that?
Just riding the streets?
Is it like camaraderie with your bros?
Is it just like chill time or what is it?
-I think more than anything
as an independent or individual
it’s a connection
between you and the horse, you know?
Everybody needs to meditate.
Everybody needs to kind of like wind down
and find something
that’s comfortable for them, you know?
-Sure.
-And find ways to take a step back
from the world in general.
And horses are, you know,
that’s what it is for me.
Who doesn’t like riding horses, man?
-Me, I’m the one guy, sorry man.
[both laughing]
Hey, but bikes are
that same therapy for me.
Seriously, I love riding bikes.
I always have.
-Yeah.
-So similar thing,
everyone needs that outlet, right?
-We all do.
Mental health is big nowadays, you know?
And often times, like for example,
I don’t think I can be that person
to go and see a therapist
but I get… you know?
What I need… I feel like
I get what I need from the horses, so…
-Gotcha.
-Yeah, it’s different for everyone.
-What do you guys think of the horses
in the neighborhood? Is that cool?
-Yeah, it’s cool.
-Yeah.
[speaking Spanish]
PETER: You want to ride the horse?
Are you ready?
-No ride, not yet.
[all chuckling]
PETER: Manana, manana.
-Yeah, tomorrow.
PETER: Mora, you got anything to say?
PETER: The horse is the ultimate diffuser.
-It really is.
-She saw the horse.
She saw smiles.
HECTOR: They break barriers.
PETER: Maybe that moment ends here soon.
-Oh, that’s…
-It’s fertilizer.
-It’s funny because
that’s one of the biggest pushbacks we get.
-Is the poop?
-It’s poop, c’mon.
The poop itself dissipates.
It’s there now, it won’t be there,
you know, later in the evening.
PETER: Daniel, what’s up with the graffiti?
Is that a gang or what is that?
DANIEL: Honestly, I don’t recognize that.
ROGELIO: You’re desensitized to it
to the point where you’re to the point
where you kind of don’t even…
We’re out of that age range too.
I think when you’re in high school,
you gain a knowledge about that.
Where to be, where not to be
and we’re not in that phase, you know?
-Do you feel like the Bloods and Crips
are still a real big thing out here?
-Yes.
-It’s pretty strong still?
-It’s still a thing.
-It’s not a thing for us in our community
for the Mexican Ranchero community here.
But our friends,
we hear about it, social media.
Someone’s dying on a weekly basis
and it’s like, dang, it’s crazy.
-But you guys, they’re doing their thing,
you’re doing your thing?
DANIEL: Yes, it’s separate.
They respect the whole lifestyle,
the horses.
[hooves on pavement]
PETER: Daniel, do you ever
ride with cyclists or is this a first?
-I think this is my first time.
I could race you too if you like.
-You wanna race?
-Try it down the street.
-Let’s do it.
-Let’s go, we’ll just do a little gallop.
-I’m a little scared
of the handling on this bike.
[metal clanking]
There it goes, there goes the chain.
I think I beat Peter right now.
I think I beat Peter.
-I think I woulda won, man.
-Childhood memories, man,
look at you.
Putting the chain back on the bike.
-Of course.
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[speaking Spanish]
♪ ice cream truck music ♪
All right, guys, hard to convey into words
but this place has a feel
like nowhere else in the world.
Nowhere that I’ve seen.
It just wouldn’t be able
to be recreated anywhere else.
The different cultures mixed in.
The Southern California climate.
The randomness of the ice cream truck.
This is what I say in so many of my videos.
What a crazy country, right?
Just even in this city alone,
in Los Angeles
most people here have never
come to this part of the city.
You have different worlds within the city
and then you start going
to the far outreaches of the country.
That could be somewhere in Alaska,
or Florida is a different world from here,
or the Northeast, and there’s just so much
operating in one country.
That’s what gets me fired up
on this content to be honest.
So let’s get back to it.
♪ ice cream truck music ♪
[Spanish]
♪ ice cream truck music ♪
PETER: So guys, as a non-cowboy
like myself
and someone who’s not gonna ride a horse
I would think you guys would be craving
to be in that Yellowstone environment.
Do you dream everyday of, say,
“Oh, I want to live on a ranch…”
“…way up in Montana
away from people, tons of land.”?
Is that something you want
or you love it here too much?
-Not me.
-Not you? Okay.
-I personally would, you know?
But there’s that inner-city, you know?
And then just growing up in the city
that kind of makes it
a little bit difficult.
Because at the end of the day
you’re so used to a certain lifestyle
and if we’re able to have
the best of both worlds…
You know, even better.
-Our project is evident of that.
Like we want to create spaces
so that we can have our horses,
run out, enjoy ourselves,
live a happier life
and in the current situation
we’re out in the concrete
on the pavement around the cars.
PETER: How about you, Daniel?
-Well…
PETER: You wouldn’t get
that service in Montana.
-No, you wouldn’t
My experience here is
I had it here in the city.
So, like, my family migrated here.
They bought their home here
in Richland Farms.
So luckily I was able to learn
all their traditions
and they preserved their culture here.
So I think it’s any cowboy’s dream
to live in Montana or Wyoming
and have all that property
and their ranching-style life
there with cattle
and to drive along in the scenery.
But…
I guess we’re Californians, man.
You know, we’re from LA.
So we love it here.
We have the beach,
we have snow, we have everything here.
PETER: It’s January.
DANIEL: Yeah.
And we’re not dealing
with some crazy weather either.
So I think it’s awesome
that we’re able to do this here
and that the city of Compton has this area
that we can pretty much live off our land.
-So if you guys rode these horses
over into Torrance
or wherever else, Inglewood.
Would the law…
Would the police mess with you?
Would there be a problem?
-That’s a good question.
-I haven’t heard of anyone
and every once in a while
I do see people out
in the outskirts riding horses.
In the city that I grew up in, Lennox,
we had the Cinqo de Mayo parade.
Tons of horses, and those people
that are riding are sometimes from here.
So I see it all over
and I don’t think the cops
make an issue about it in general.
-Okay, if you rode
into Downtown Los Angeles?
[Hector to Rogelio] Be careful.
PETER: Wow, that’s the urban challenge.
So if you rode into Downtown Los Angeles?
-Yeah, we have a buddy
that likes to get out there.
He gets his trailer and he goes everywhere
and he’ll go to Downtown.
He’ll go to spots with a nightlife
and he’ll go out,
and he’s never had any issues.
PETER: All right, guys.
So what’s this here? What’s going on?
-This is known as the Compton campfire site
and it goes unused at the moment
and it’s gone like that for a couple years.
Connecting Compton’s
working on a really big mission
to build an equestrian center
on a former landfill that’s just a bit…
about a mile from here
but in the immediate we’d like to offer…
And we are planning on
offering services this year.
We’re educators, the three of us.
We went to school together.
We graduated together.
We’re all teachers.
And we want to focus on our students
with special needs and offer horse therapy.
And we’ve asked the city.
We want to potentially start negotiating
on either the purchase release
of this space
so that we can start programming.
We want to also open up a rodeo team
and we have Trey Hosley.
He’s Compton’s rodeo champion.
He’s working very hard.
We also have other people
that are striving for that
but he’s gonna be our coach.
We’re also going to start a Charro program
and we’re also gonna start
a folklorico team.
PETER: What’s a charro program?
-So go ahead, you can explain
a little bit more about the charro program.
-The sport of charreria is the Mexican…
traditional sport of Mexico.
-Okay.
-And they focus more on roping.
They do a lot of tricks
off of ropes and they…
It’s a lot of horse etiquette
and horse training too.
So there’s different categories.
-Do you guys want just Mexicans
or Latinos or is it all kids here?
What’s the goal?
-We’re very much about servicing
everyone that’s interested
in learning more about horses.
Like for example,
here in the community of Compton
it’s easily over 70% of Latinos
that represent Compton
but we’ll have African Americans here,
we’ll have Polynesians.
We had the second largest population
of Polyne… of Samoans
here in the city of Compton.
-Oh, yeah?
-Obviously we have Filipinos.
We have all people of all backgrounds.
We want people to be able to come by.
Boys, girls, open to families, children
and we’re doing this
for free for the children.
PETER: Who owns this now, the city?
ROGELIO: The City of Compton.
PETER: And it’s just sitting here
doing nothing.
So the horses never really fully
get to run, like, full speed?
-We do on the actual channel trail
but since it rained so much
we already know the condition of it,
they’re gonna be really muddy,
and Hector almost died about a year ago
’cause his horse got stuck,
fell over and thanks to the little fence,
managed to not fall into the canal.
PETER: Oh, this mud, right?
ROGELIO: Wow, pretty bad.
PETER: Yeah, that’s serious.
Like so many of these days,
I wake up not knowing the mission at hand.
Like a rough outline.
“Let’s go shoot some cowboys in Compton.”
And then the adventure unfolds.
And so all this info is new to me
just like it is to you guys.
We learn something together,
that’s the really cool thing about this.
Is we get into a different lifestyle
that we would never see for the most part.
Unless really actively looking for it
like I do with this channel.
There’s always something
to be learned from everybody.
All right,
I’m about to have a mud butt here
but we made it, that was easy.
[bicycle banging]
PETER: Is this your restaurant, Mr. Cliff?
-Yes, it is.
-Oh great, how long have you been here?
-Since ’92.
-How’s it going?
-Fantastic.
-Fantastic?
-Yeah.
I’m the burrito king.
-Burrito king?
-Yes, sir.
Any kind of burrito you want, I have it.
-So Mr. Cliff,
you have multiple businesses in Compton?
-Well, I’ve had multiple businesses.
-Okay.
-I’ve been in business since 1975.
-What’s your advice
to the young people, let’s say?
-Be willing to work, be honest,
get you a good product and stick with it.
Don’t mind working.
If you don’t mind working,
you can be in business
but if you do mind working,
don’t go in business.
-So even Compton right now in these times
you’re saying plenty of opportunity?
-Sh*t, there’s lots of opportunity,
you just have to find what your niche is.
Whatever you’re good at,
I mean if you’re good at making hamburger
then that’s what you do.
If you do that,
then you never work a day in your life.
Every day you come out…
You good at taking pictures,
doing the camera?
-That’s what I love.
It took me a while to find it though,
it didn’t come easily.
How are you with the horses coming up?
-I love it.
I love the community,
I’ve been out here since 1971.
-Very solid community in Compton?
-Yes, it is.
-Everyone sort of gets along?
Obviously there’s violence
and crime but there’s a good core?
-The violence and crime
is not that prevalent.
You could think it is
because that’s what the media…
-It’s not like the ’90s, right?
-No it’s not like the ’80s and the ’90s.
-That was pretty hardcore here, right?
-Yeah, that was pretty hardcore.
But it’s good, it’s good.
We got past that and we’re gonna also
get past this, you know?
-There’s a little spike right now?
-It’s a little spike right now
but it’s gonna be okay.
Like I said,
I’ve been in business since 1975
and I haven’t had a problem.
-Never?
-I’ve never had a problem.
I thank God for that.
I thank the community for that.
They respect me.
I put out a good product.
I treat everybody fair.
And I try to keep a clean, friendly place.
PETER: Mr. Cliff, can I ask you a question?
-Yeah, sure.
-Compton is 70% Latino now, right?
Something like that?
-I would go so far to say 80%.
-How is the relations between everyone?
-I think it’s a good mix of people
and it’s gonna get better.
We just have to learn to understand
that we all want the same things.
We all wanna raise our kids.
We all want to have a spot to have a job.
We want to have a home.
We all want the same thing,
we’re the same people.
-And a good burrito?
-And a good burrito.
-You gotta get one of our soul man burgers.
-Oh, okay, next time.
-Pastrami, ground beef patty,
about that tall.
That’ll be good for you.
So let’s give this a try.
PETER: I went all in,
check this out, the full fish meal.
Yeah.
What are you ladies getting?
-We getting the carne asada burrito.
-You won the award this year?
-No.
[all laughing]
-I got husband of the year award,
I won husband of the year.
So my wife said for a day.
Can I film your t-shirt?
That’s awesome.
WOMAN: Okay, I like that, you need Jesus.
[all laughing]
PETER: You guys got
some t-shirts over here, huh?
WOMAN: Where you get that one from?
MAN: It was a Christmas gift.
WOMAN: Okay.
-This is Mr. Cliff’s special fish plate.
Nice flaky fish, look at that.
Medley of vegetables, some beans.
HECTOR: Some real food, man.
PETER: Solid Mr. Cliff soul food.
HECTOR: That’s it.
Right here in a nice space.
Right here in Compton.
PETER: So I was asking Hector
in the shop a bit ago about,
“What’s the deal with horses?
Like, what do you get out of it?”
and he came up with
it’s sort of like a meditation.
It’s sort of like therapy.
What do you guys get out of it,
riding horses?
-When I first got on a horse
I learned with a buddy of mine
that trains horses
but he put me on a bucking bronco.
So immediately, my first class was
the hardest thing you can do on a horse.
And immediately,
because I managed to stay on
I had a different level of confidence
moving forward.
Like, in general.
-In life?
-In life.
Because I managed to stay on.
I take in that same mindset
for a lot of things.
Like, you know, but…
The horse, what I’ve learned is
depending on how you’re feeling
they’re gonna reflect that same energy.
-Okay.
-So if I feel afraid about something,
their behavior is gonna show it,
but if I feel brave about it,
it’s just like a big mirror now
and it’s helped me recognize myself a bit.
-Interesting.
What about you Daniel?
-So I was pretty much
born into the lifestyle.
We all have our problems in life,
job and everything.
So once you get on your horse,
you’re just in a different mindset.
You forget about everything.
-When we did our event in Cayenta,
they asked us a question,
“What does it mean for you to be a cowboy?”
Everybody on the panel, all the cowboys
and cowgirls that were there present
had a similar answer.
There’s dignity in the life that you live.
Work ethic,
and family over everything, you know?
And you don’t have the give up attitude.
You can’t give up
when you’re with a horse,
when you’re with the animals
you can’t give up.
You give up,
they say you never get anything done
and so the mentality
of just pushing forward
regardless of what comes in front of you,
that’s definitely one of those things.
That you get to live and learn when
you are part of the lifestyle, you know?
DANIEL: A lot of responsibility too.
Like my parents always,
as a kid, they used to always tell me,
“Rain or shine, you had to be out there.”
They used to always tell me,
“The animals eat first, before you.”
-Okay.
-Horses don’t feed themselves, you know?
-They don’t have hands.
So, you know,
the animals don’t feed themselves.
So you have to go feed them first,
then you sit down and enjoy your dinner
or whatever you have to do.
It’s a lot of responsibility.
-If animals talked… [chuckles]
Man, that’d be amazing, huh?
PETER: Mmm, so good.
-Yeah, man.
-Yeah, enjoy it.
-Mm-hmm.
PETER: What’s your name?
-Joshua, nice to meet you.
-Joshua.
You too, Joshua.
-Yes, sir.
How long’s your son been a cowboy for?
MAN: All his life.
PETER: From day one?
-Since I was one, day one,
I was born ready.
-You were born ready?
-Yeah.
People that are not from Compton,
they always say,
“Oh, Compton’s all about gang violence.”
and everything
but, like, if you look at us,
look at what we’re doing right now.
You know what I mean?
-You live in Compton?
-Yeah.
-Okay.
-Yes, sir.
-So you’re not feeling the gang culture,
you’re feeling the cowboy culture?
-The streets raised us
but the horses saved us.
Chris Cox, have you heard the name?
-No.
-He’s a very, very, very famous wrangler,
professional wrangler.
He actually invited me to his ranch
for two weeks, to Wyoming
and he’s, like, professional
and I’ve just been going ever since.
-You’ve been going up to Wyoming?
-Yeah.
DANIEL: Hold this horse for me,
hold him tight.
PETER: What do you think of
the day in, day out of being a cowboy?
All the work that it takes.
-Just it’s a lot of work
but if you really love something
you have to reach for it.
You know what mean?
And cowboys…
They love their work,
and not even cowboys
but cowgirls especially, and I love
what I do, you know what I mean?
And I just gotta reach for it.
And if, like…
Work, at the end of the day, you’re tired.
At the next morning when the roosters crow,
you come right back up
and do the same thing.
ROGELIO: Josh is one of those kids that
you know they’re gonna accomplish
big things in their life.
Josh just has such a great character.
-He’s standing up.
-He’s a little cowboy out here.
-So did you get him into this
as his father?
What I did was we bought him Woody PJ,
like Toy Story.
-Okay.
-And he was like, “I’m a cowboy.”
He wore that day and night.
And then he just started riding.
-Now he’s hanging out on ranches
in Wyoming in the summers.
-Yes, sir.
PETER: That’s your buddy on the dirt bike?
-Yeah.
-What were you saying about Arabic?
You speak a little bit of Arabic?
-No, just a little bit of stuff,
just here and there.
I try to know a little bit
of each other languages.
Never know where the job takes you,
you gotta follow it, you know?
-Where the job takes you?
You ready for that?
-Oh yeah, I’ve been ready.
I’m already hitting it.
People are already getting jobs.
Like at In-N-Out, around 18,
blah, blah, blah.
16, something like that.
A cowboy, if you’re really into it,
if you really know what you’re doing,
you can start at the age of six.
If I needed to get a job,
I can go to 15 ranches.
-15 ranches?
-15.
-Across the US?
-Across the US.
-Leave my legs open?
-Yes, leave your legs open.
Get a little closer, that’s fine.
Just hold it right there.
[horse grunts]
[excited yelling]
DANIEL: Watch out, watch out.
[excited yelling]
[laughter]
PETER: I’m getting back.
ROGELIO: You gotta work ’em.
PETER: So the horse didn’t like two people.
-I’ve noticed that whenever
I lend my horse to anyone else
once I get her back
her energy’s a little bit different.
-So he’s just bringing his horse
back in the mold there.
ROGELIO: Right, so what he’s doing,
he’s doing basic control.
Turning left, turning right,
going in a circle, sprinting and stopping.
And so… Reminding them who’s boss.
So not only do you have to make sure
the horse, if they want to turn left,
and it was their ultimate decision,
you gotta stop them
and make sure you remind them
that you’re managing where we’re going.
PETER: Daniel,
you’re the Kevin Costner of Compton.
-Hey, you know
Kevin Costner’s from Compton?
-C’mon.
-Not lying to you.
-Kevin Costner was born here?
-Yep and went to school in Inglewood.
-Learn something new every day.
[hooves on concrete]
♪ hip hop playing on a boom box ♪
Daniel was saying
Kevin Costner is from Compton.
ROGELIO: George W. Bush.
When he was a kid,
he lived in the Santa Fe apartments here.
-It’s a call to action.
Mr. Costner,
we would love to speak to you, man.
Love to let you know
what our plans here in the city.
PETER: You need Costner to come down here.
-We’d love to have Costner on board.
-Is he an inspiration to cowboys?
-100%.
Especially with the whole Yellowstone
and all his movies in the past
and everything.
I think he’s cemented
a picture of what a cowboy is
and I think he lives up to that.
-Yeah, Yellowstone is really good.
-What he recently did
for cowboys for the culture.
Blew it up to where
everybody wants to be a cowboy.
-Okay, so that’s not fading away?
-It’s not.
-But do they want to be a cowboy?
The day in, day out of being a cowboy?
-Now that’s where it gets…
That’s where you’re gonna lose
the ones that are not fit for it, you know?
-Some people just want
to wear a cowboy hat.
-And that’s okay too, you know.
-Yeah.
-That’s okay too.
At the end of the day those true cowboys,
the ones that are putting it on the line
on a daily basis,
they also need to be recognized
and we have other people
that are interested in the lifestyle
and they can just be spectators, why not?
[whooping and yelling]
OGELIO: We’re gonna get a [inaudible]
one these days with you guys, all right?
CHILD: Okay.
ROGELIO: Have you guys
ever been on a horse?
CHILDREN: No.
ROGELIO: Would you guys
be down to ride a horse?
Not today, but just in general?
CHILDREN: Yes!
[all laughing]
HECTOR: He’s only gonna lick you.
PETER: Okay, so this is the dream.
-I can already see a community center,
a pavilion.
The equine center on that side
with round pens, square pens.
DANIEL: There will be paddocks,
picnic area for street vendors.
-And then where can the horses…
Where can you ride the horses?
-On the middle section would be
where we would offer the programs.
Horse therapy,
rodeo programs for the youth.
After we planned about it.
“Hey, we should do this.”
We should really put
our money behind it and figure it out.
Danny and I were standing right over there.
We were looking into it
and by chance, a man walked over…
Drove over and gave us
a ton of info on the lot.
It was like a…
Like it just came out of the heavens.
PETER: It was a landfill and now
this is your guy’s dream.
-From trash to treasure, yeah.
We want to…
It’s 18 acres unused.
It’s gone like this for decades.
And so we just want
the City of Compton to…
Hey guys, we want to clean this up
and we want to build and equestrian center,
and we’ve been doing that
for a little bit more than three years now
into our fourth year.
-We need words to turn into action.
That’s really what it is
’cause it’s a lot of,
“Yeah, yeah, yeah,
we’re here with you guys.”
but are you really?
Because at the end of the day
nothing gets done.
So let’s just turn words into actions.
For the people that
are gonna be watching your video,
we’re going to start a fund raising
campaign and hopefully they can…
PETER: Link down below.
You’ll have a website for us to go to?
-Yeah.
-Okay, we can find out more information.
-Yeah, our website to learn more
about exactly our work and our mission.
PETER: And the last words from Big Man.
You want to see this project started?
-Well yeah,
I just thought it was an amazing idea,
and I just can’t wait for it to happen.
We need donations, everything we can
to possibly make this happen
for the community and all the community
of the horsemanship
and… never know,
maybe this will be, like, the best thing
everybody will see in Compton
except for the gang violence,
you know what I mean?
-All right, guys, Connecting Compton,
check out their website here.
And I want to close on
one big observation from today.
Outside of the amazing thing that
they’re trying to accomplish in this city.
The fact that…
You can never really label a place fully.
Everything has a stereotype to some degree
and it’s easy to label things
but who knew this world exists here?
Cowboys living in Compton.
Trying to expand on what they’re doing
and bring young people into it.
It’s quite impressive.
Just shows you that people
are living their dreams everywhere,
and you never know what you’ll find
once you start digging into a place.
All right, guys, thanks for watching.
Until the next one.
♪ country ♪