Boerum Hill’s own little rodeo sweetheart wants to bring her bulls to Prospect Park.
Debbie Singleton — proprietor of Debbie’s Reins and Things, an outpost for saddles, Stetsons and steel-toed boots — has asked the Parks Department to consider letting her hold a real live rodeo in the Olmsted and Vaux landmark.
“You’d be surprised at the crowd it would get,” she said. “A lot of ladies like it, scholars, young people. Rodeos are perfect for Brooklyn.”
And she ain’t kidding, pardner.
Singleton led a three-day bronco-busting and barrel racing event last weekend at Cedar Lane Stable in Howard Beach — home of the Federation of Black Cowboys.
Singleton is a member of the federation, and an emissary to those city-slickers who don’t know their side-saddle from their front pocket. She believes a Prospect Park rodeo could help turn soft-handed spectators into urban cowboys.
“There is an audience for this,” she said. “A lot of people around here have homes upstate and are training their children to ride.”
She should know. Singleton was born in South Carolina, but raised in Brooklyn. She spent the early years of her childhood in Crown Heights and later moved to an apartment near the Navy Yards in Fort Greene. Throughout all those years, she rode horses in Prospect Park. She says she knows plenty of other Kings County cowpokes.
A Parks Department spokesman confirmed that the agency has been talking to Singleton about her proposal, though nothing formal has been presented.
Debbie’s Reins and Things (332 Douglass St., between Third Avenue and Nevins Street). For information, visit www.debbiesreinsandt… or call (718) 797-5288.
