What Brown Family Ranch Is About And How We Got Started
Brown Family Ranch is a black-owned ranch located on the east side of Gary, Indiana. This particular ranch was started as a privately owned ranch that's been around for 50-plus years and was first owned by a guy named Paul Jones. Paul held the property for a few years, and because of his love for country life and country living, he often kept beautiful gated-style horses on the property. After so long, Paul decided to sell the property to my stepdad Charles Hall Jr. who too had a love of gated horses.
After Charlie purchased the property he ultimately had a different and unique vision for said property, and felt that it had so much potential. He then started to expand the property by purchasing surrounding lots and building on them. He wanted to make use of the land by building arenas where he would have plenty of space to ride and train his horses. Charlie often had friends of the same interest with horses that would come by and just ride, and teach me to ride every step of the way. They would take to the streets and nearby neighborhoods and let kids pet the horses, take them for rides, teach the kids about the horses, and Charlie, along with his buddies would even ride in just about every parade that the city of Gary would have. Eventually Charlie, along with a few other cowboys would teach me how to ride.
Years later with the passing of my stepdad, my family and I would still follow in his footsteps to continue the love of riding, sharing, and engaging with our community and the less fortunate kids. We have many different programs at our ranch that we offer to our community and the kids in it such as teaching equestrianship, agricultural education, horseback riding lessons, ranch tours, community days, workshops, and more.
On our off days or even free time, my family and I would still feel the need to enjoy ourselves at a good old fashion rodeo where we'd all compete in many events that they have to offer.
Lastly, our goal is to reach out to as many kids and adults as possible to teach and share our love for equestrianship and agriculture with our community and the public.
