Acres on Detroit’s west side becoming what is expected to be the largest urban equestrian center in the country.
David Silver grew up riding horses competitively in Westchester, New York, and he knew what the barn had given him: patience, confidence, and the nerve to take on something bigger than you. After graduating from Dartmouth in 2012, he came to Detroit through Teach For America and taught fourth and fifth grade on the city’s west side. His students had none of that access. There was not a single place in the city where a kid could learn to ride.
So he left the classroom to build one. Silver spent months pitching the idea to mentors and community leaders, formed a board, and founded Detroit Horse Power, a nonprofit that uses horses to teach Detroit youth ages 11 to 18 five traits: perseverance, empathy, responsible risk taking, confidence, and self-control. For years, his students had to travel to barns outside the city to take part.
That is about to change. Detroit Horse Power is building its own equestrian center on a 14-acre site at Fenkell and Linwood in the Hope Village neighborhood, with stables for 17 horses, indoor and outdoor riding arenas, and classrooms. Once complete, it is expected to be the largest urban equestrian center in the country. Mayor Mary Sheffield toured the site on October 22 and called it an important resource for the city’s young people.
"His students had to leave Detroit to ride. So he is building the barn in their neighborhood."
Silver could have gone back to the world he came from. Instead he took the thing that shaped him and rebuilt it where it had never existed, in a neighborhood most people would never picture as horse country. That is what it looks like to bring an opportunity home instead of making kids travel to find it.
This is the kind of builder ANF exists to spotlight. Take what shaped you and build it for the kids who never got the chance.
Detroit kids used to leave the city to ride. Soon the horses will live in Hope Village.
