‘Cowboys for Trump’ Ride to Washington to Support the President and Border Security

Twelve Americans loyal to their country and their president set off on horseback from Cumberland, Maryland on Feb. 15, through the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal along the Potomac River on a ride to Washington. The purpose of the journey was to show their support for the president and his announcement of a declaration of a national emergency to secure funds for border wall construction and address border security in the Southwest.

With the help from Kina Davis of Spring Gap Farms, who donated the use of the horses, trucks, and trailers for the ride, cowboys from across the country set off in the snow on the 173-mile ride.

“I don’t know if you believe in God, and higher powers, but I truly believe the cause of this was bigger than all of us,” said Kina. “And if they didn’t get these horse from me, they would have somehow been provided for.”

Kina said she gets hundreds of calls a year to rent horses to ride in the canal, and that she usually says no, because no matter what kind of experiences customers say they have, it might not be accurate.

However, there were key points that resonated with her when organizers Couy Griffin and Josh Davis of Cowboys For Trump contacted her by phone.

Consequently, even though she was thinking there was no way she was going to give out horses to ride to Washington, and that most people wouldn’t even do that with bicycles, those key words changed her mind.

“Everyone that has something to protect, or something they love, you put a wall around it, whether it be a house or a fence,” said Kina recalling the conversation with the organizers. “We really need this wall.”

Sense of Security

Kina believes no matter who you are: “We do all believe in some sort of security.”

“And the whole reason we’re having so much trouble is that they hate President Trump,” said Kina. “Well let’s kind of go beyond that.”

According to Cowboys For Trump’s gofundme page, the ride was a symbol of support for the president and a symbol for unity and righteousness.

“This hatred for our president is why we can’t get anything done in America,” said Josh Davis, an organizer for Cowboys For Trump. “Nobody’s looking at facts. I mean look at the unemployment rate, look at the economy. Nobody’s looking at facts on anything, and if people would just look at facts they would understand that he is doing what’s best for America.”

“It didn’t matter to us, we were just there to support our president,” said Josh. “A lot of the men that were there were from down in New Mexico, they live on the border, they deal with the immigration problems every day, they have illegal immigrants crossing their farms, crossing their ranches, stealing from them, their friends are getting beat up and murdered and robbed, and I think a lot of people that are opposed to the wall and are against it, have no clue what goes on down there, and they don’t want to know, because the only reason why they’re opposed to it is because Trump wants it.”

Josh said the Cowboys received great support along the way.

“What I’ve noticed about putting this ride on is a lot of the conservative people are more than happy to jump in and help, we had amazing support group throughout this whole thing,” said Josh.

“As far as the horses go there were people coming out of the woodwork,” he said. “Offering their farms, their barns, offering places to put horses up, and Spring Gap Farms right outside of Cumberland, Maryland they supplied horses, trucks, trailers, feed, hay.”

“Southern states in Cumberland, Maryland donated forty bags of cedar shavings for the stalls in the trailers,” said Josh. “It was just an amazing experience.”

Unity for America

The Cowboys For Trump Facebook page says that “Cowboys For Trump is an organization founded upon like-minded Americans who are concerned about the direction of our country. We believe that the liberal progressive agenda is drastically moving us away from the identifying principles that make us proud to be American.”

“When a group of men and women stand up, a lot of other people are gonna follow,” said Josh.

“I think that if more people, instead of sitting back and talking about it, or Facebooking about it, or tweeting about it, stand up and do something, you’re gonna have a lot more people to jump in and help, and I think that this is just the beginning of Cowboys For Trump,” he said.

“This is not the end, this ride might be over, but I promise you we will be back and we’ll be back bigger and better.”

Only the Beginning

Josh said that the Cowboys are talking about organizing another ride, and for people to check back on their page.

“Tell em to stay tuned, to look us up on Facebook, you know this was a pretty costly event, but it was well worth it,” he said. “It was just unreal how people jumped in and helped, and again Spring Gap Farm in Cumberland Maryland, Kina Davis, she was the key component to this.”

“None of us knew each other before this ride … when all the other men flew in, that was the first time we ever met,” said Josh. “That is an example that it doesn’t matter where you’re from, you can come together for a great purpose.”

“That’s what we have to work for and strive for as Americans, is we have to understand that there’s gonna be disagreements,” said Josh. “But this hatred and bitterness that we’re dealing with today is gonna be the death of this nation if we don’t learn how to agree to disagree.”

Braving the elements, heavy snow, freezing rain, ice, and a few detours were some of the challenges faced along the way.

“We rode through the snow, we rode through the freezing rain, and we did so because, we want to stand strong as our president has stood strong,” said Couy Griffin, in an interview with Fox.

At one point, one of the experienced riders, Shawn Cummings, a rancher from New Mexico, was thrown off his horse when it lost its footing while crossing a small bridge over a creek.

“That was somewhat towards the beginning of the day so he rode the rest of the day in the cold, wet like that,” said Josh.

Kina said after resaddling the horse, and Cummings had mounted again, the horse proceeded to shake off the water like a dog would, again throwing its rider off.

“These guys bounce,” said Kina. “I’m sure he was sore but they’re cowboys, they’re tough.”

“The 15th of February is not the most pleasant day to ride out here in Maryland,” said Griffin. “Every guy here is cowboy enough to get it done.”

Griffin said they averaged 20-25 miles a day to show the president their appreciation.

“We didn’t come out here to meet the president, we came out here to support the president,” said Griffin.

“It’s a grassroots movement on every front,” he said.

Ramie Harper, a hat maker from New Mexico, built a hat for the president. Inside the hat, it was labeled: “Custom made for Donald J. Trump, president of the USA.”

Griffin called it: “The nicest cowboy hat that money can buy.”

Defending Life

Gavin Clarkson, Owner & Managing Director at Native American Capital, in an interview with Breitbart, said: “the Cowboys For Trump are riding to defend life.”

“This is not a political ride per-say, we support the president because he’s our president,” said Clarkson. “Regardless of what party you’re with.

“We encourage democrats to join the ride, we encourage independents to join the ride. This is something where we are trying to say that we need a secure southern border, we need to defend life, and we need to defend the lives of the unborn. We need to defend the lives of the brave men and women of customs and border protection, and we need the right to defend our families and our loved ones with our second amendment rights, and unfortunately, all of those are under assault in New Mexico.”

The Cowboys arrived in Washington, on Feb. 22, completing their adventure. While they were not able to get their fine custom hat to the president, they got their message out to the public. Josh said talks are underway with the Whitehouse to have the hat delivered.

Jeremy Sandberg

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Jeremy Sandberg is a New York based reporter originally from British Columbia, Canada. He focuses on Wall Street and other business news.