Founder of Ebony Horsewomen on Living Your Best Life with Genma Holmes

 UPDATE: Audio of the show can be found here.

Join Living Your Best Life with Genma Holmes as we profile organizations, leaders, and volunteers who lead by example. With extraordinary acts of kindness and charitable giving that help countless lives daily, these organizations, leaders, and volunteers embody "Be the change you want to see in the world."

On Saturday, June 7, 2014, join us to hear the amazing Patricia (Pat) Kelly, Founder of Ebony Horsewomen and Rodeo Hall of Fame Inductee. She will share how her love for horses started at a young age after her Jewish neighbor introduced taught her how to care for and eventually ride his horses. Ms. Kelly took her love for horses with her when she joined the USMC during Vietnam. After her tour of duty, she continued to ride horses while pursuing her education and raising a family.

In 1984, Ms. Kelly gathered a few girlfriends to introduce them to horseback riding as a way to share the serenity and peace she found being around horses. What started out as a social organization turned into a movement when Ms. Kelly saw the need to share her love for horses with young people. Listen to her share about the many actives and events that young cowboys and cowgirls enjoy at the Ebony Horsewomen Equestrian and Agriculture Center. Hear Ms. Kelly share fond memories about being a part of the Tournament of Roses parade in 1990 and 1991, the endless summer activities scheduled, the Equine After School Program, Comprehensive Equine Education that promotes S.T.E.M, and Equine Therapy.

Ebony Horsewomen Equestrian and Agricultural Center

Ms. Kelly will also share how the tragic events of Sandy Hook led her to focus more on mental health issues and how her proposed 63 million Equestrian Farm and Training Center will help meet mental health needs of the minority undeserved. Ms. Kelly closes by sharing with us uplifting work of Petal Share, a non-profit organization, founded by Civil Rights Attorney Heather Lawson, her daughter and a future guest on Living Your Best Life Radio.

Living Your Best Life Radio, radio that empowers, inspires, and motivates you to live your BEST life. can be heard on 760 AM in the Middle-Tennessee Region, Tune In, military bases, and streamed live on U-Stream.TV from 9-10AM CST. This show will also air on WTST, a member of the HBCU radio network (XM 142).

 More About Patricia Lawson Kelly

Ms. Patrica Kelly

Patricia Kelly is a pioneering horsewoman and a pillar in the Connecticut horse community. Growing up in Hartford, Patricia discovered her love for horses by caring for and eventually learning to ride a neighbor's horse. Patricia never looked back and a life long Black Cowgirl was born. 

Patricia is a Vietnam USMC Veteran. She founded Ebony Horsewomen in 1984 as a cultural and social enrichment organization for women. However in 1987, she noticed the significant negative impact of drugs on her community and particularly youth, so she redirected the organization to address this issue. She secured her non-profit status and changed Ebony Horsewomen’s mission to include helping inner city youth.

Without any outside assistance, she purchased four horses and began teaching women and youth how to ride. Patricia worked over the years to showcase her riders in parades and other events to celebrate and preserve the history of Black horseman and women. Patricia developed her innovative "Horse Sense" program that brought horses, educators and doctors into Hartford’s poorest inner city schools and communities. The program taught self-esteem, academic excellence, and abstinence from drugs and alcohol. The Horse Sense program won numerous civic and community awards.

Today, Ebony Horsewomen Inc. operates as a full time non-profit youth development and equestrian center with over $500,000 in community support. The organization serves over 470 youth throughout Connecticut annually.

Patricia is currently developing a $63 million dollar Horse Park and Exhibition Center in Connecticut.

Photo Credits: Ebony Horsewomen

Join Living Your Best Life Radio at the Hall of Fame Rodeo

Living Your Best Life Radio is headed out west. Join us at the Hall Fame Rodeo, Sunday July 27, 2014.
Rodeo starts at 7:00pm. Doors open at 6:00pm. To purchase tickets got www.cowtowncoliseum.com

Cowboys of Color on Living Your Best Life with Genma Holmes

Update: Audio of Show can be found here.

Join Living Your Best Life with Genma Holmes as we profile organizations, leaders, and volunteers who lead by example. With extraordinary acts of kindness and charitable giving that help countless lives daily, these organizations, leaders, and volunteers embody "Be the change you want to see in the world."

Gloria and Jim Austin being presented with art for NMWHM

On Saturday, May 31, 2014, tune in to hear Jim Austin, the founder of the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum. Mr. Austin, a former executive with American Express, will share historical perspectives of people and activities that built the unique culture of the American West. Often, historians have left out the contributions of Black and Hispanic Cowboys and Native American Indians. And Hollywood's version of the American Cowboy rarely includes diversity.

"Cowboys of Color" Rodeo

Mr. Austin will discuss American heroes like Bill Pickett who is famously known for "bulldogging", women of the "wild wild west" like Mary Fields, also known as “Stagecoach Mary”  and recent inductees into the Cowboys and Cowgirls Hall of Fame.

Ebony Horsewomen Equestrian and Agricultural Center

Mr. Austin will share the significance of the  Hall of Fame and the importance of highlighting the excellent examples of American heroes of the past, present, and future.  He will share stories about individual contributors to maintaining the history of American Western Culture like Art T. Burton, scholar and author of Black, Red, and Deadly, actress Pam Grier, and Patrica E. Kelly, founder of Ebony Horsewomen, Inc., who is teaching a younger generation to the benefits of an Equine Education that promotes science, technology, engineering, math and horsemanship.

This show promises to keep you laughing while engaging you with one nugget of knowledge after another. 

Living Your Best Life Radio, radio that empowers, inspires, and motivates you to live your BEST life. can be heard on 760 AM in the Middle-Tennessee Region, Tune In, military bases, and streamed live on U-Stream.TV from 9-10AM CST. This show will also air on WTST, a member of the HBCU radio network (XM 142).

More About Jim Austin

James N. "Jim" Austin, Jr. is the broker and owner of The Austin Company Commercial Real Estate, established in 1981. The Austin Company has served the Fort Worth-Dallas metro area with commercial real estate and property management services for over thirty-three years. Austin served as Commissioner on the Texas Real Estate Commission for eight years. Jim Austine is a 1976 graduate of Howard University where he received his BA in Business. As a realtor, his commitment to his community service garnered him national recognition from the National Association of Realtors® as a recipient of the coveted Realtor® Magazine’s Good Neighbor Award in 2003. The Good Neighbor Awards recognize REALTORS® who’ve made an extraordinary strides to improving the quality of life in their communities through volunteer efforts.

 Jim Austin Online (JAO) originated in the fall of 2008 with 200 friends signing up to receive a e-newsletter from Jim. Jim Austine Online now has a community of over nearly 20,000 members. In conjunction with the weekly newsletter, JAO offers benefits that are exclusively found on JAO website such as monthly Networking Business Luncheons with high profile individuals as host like gubernatorial candidates and other relevant business and political figures. JAO also offers tickets to various theatrical, music and sporting events held at event venues such as Nokia Theater and the Dallas Cowboys Stadium.

More About the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum 

The mission of the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum and Hall of Fame is to offer visitors a true and complete historical perspective of the people and activities that built the unique culture of the American West. The works of artists who have documented the people and events of the time through journals, photographs, and other historical items are part of this new collection.  These long overlooked materials tell, perhaps, for the first time the complete story.  The American West of today still operates on many of the principles and cultural relationships begun so long ago.

The National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum was started to acknowledge the contributions of Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, European Americans, and African Americans in the settlement of the Western American Frontier.

The National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum is currently located at 3400 Mount Vernon Ave in Forth Worth, Texas. There are several featured exhibits such as the Tuskegee Airmen and the Buffalo Soldiers .

Photo Credits: NMWHM, JOA, and Ebony Horsewomen, Inc.