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Michael McMeel, 57, remembers
one of the first places where he gained self-confi
dence, learned respect and experienced magic. It
was on the back of a horse in rural Colorado.
So in 1992, after widespread televised riots tore
apart south-central Los Angeles, where the former
rock musician was directing TV commercials,
McMeel conceived an
alternative to gangs
and violence by giv- ■
ing inner-city kids 1
that same positive J
experience. J
“I watched L.A.
burn from an office
where I was work- J
ing,” says the for- J
mer drummer for L
the 1970 s group *
Three Dog Night.
“I felt a need to do
something to help.”
Seeing the movie City
Slickers sparked an idea
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Founder
Michael
McMeel
for Inner City Slickers, a ranch where “the street
kids” could meet “the cowboys.”
“I saw it as a place where we could instill Old
West values of perseverance, responsibility, cour
age and hard work,” McMeel says. He asked a
few friends to act as wranglers for troubled
inner-city kids referred by communi
ty leaders. Soon he was offering day
and weekend camps on his 10-acre
ranch in Agua Duke, Calif.,
50 miles north of Los Ange
la les, where kids saddled up
v, Ins horses and learned to
ijll.-'Mr trust and respect the
animals, themselves
■KjgJi and each other.
Ssßr, Now, almost 15
years later, he esu-
mates nearlv 10,000
iBBr 9 kids, ages 10 to 18, have
attended his program.
EoaNjjj
which he is launching
nationwide from his new
. home base in New Taze-
well, Tenn. (pop. 2,871), plus scouting for addi
tional sites in other states.
For the Inner City Slickers, lessons in hard work
and responsibility often begin at the end of a
shovel, where they start by cleaning horse stables.
Then they learn to conquer their fear of riding an
animal that’s more than twice their size. McMeel
has seen tough, tattooed teenagers terrified of get
ting onto a horse. But soon they are grinning ear
to ear as they twirl lariats, run relay races and ride
trails—all on horseback.
“We purposely set up situations which make
them afraid so they can’t act cool and aloof, and
they forget about race and color,” McMeel says.
“Then we support them though their fear, which
builds their self-confidence.”
He recalls one girl who was terrified of rid
ing his homemade mechanical bull, a barrel,
attached by springs to four posts, that can
bounce to 15 feet in the air when wranglers pull
on the control ropes.
“I told her, ‘You just have to sit on it and we’ll
take however long it takes,’" McMeel recalls.
“Finally we could move it a foot up and down.
Page 4
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At Ihner City Slickers,
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