The leather creaks softly as Courtney “CW” Mallery settles into the saddle, and his hands rest loosely on the reins. His American Quarter Horse shifts its weight. The warm, solid, living presence beneath CW grounds him instantly. He feels his shoulders drop, tension slipping away. When Freedom steps forward, their world changes. The horse’s stride is steady, each hoof pressing into the earth with a rhythm that flows through its body.
The air is fresh. The rising sun is a welcome warmth on his face. He’s not pushing, not striving, just being carried. The horse doesn’t judge, doesn’t ask for anything more than gentle guidance. The walk is unhurried, almost meditative. It’s a lot like mindfulness in motion. The simple act of moving forward without effort—it all folds together into a sense of ease.
CW’s mind, usually a churn of noise, softens as he gets carried away by the rhythm of Freedom’s gait. It’s a reminder that peace can be simple: one breath, one step, one steady rhythm at a time.
When Nicole Mallery saddles up her feisty horse, Justice, the ride becomes more than exercise. It’s her time to pray, reflect, and gather strength. Justice’s restless energy matches her own, yet her steady presence offers comfort. Out on the open land, their land, with only hoofbeats and breath between them, Nicole finds a rhythm that feels like therapy and meditation rolled into one—a partnership that gives her both escape and renewal.
These rides are how 43-year-old CW can escape, because he can’t remember the last time he went on vacation.
“Vacation? What’s that?” he says with a chuckle.
“I would love a vacation,” says his wife, Nicole. But when you own and run a large farm, she is quick to point out, the work never stops–it’s a full-time, year-round commitment.
Farming demands resilience. Farming 1,000 acres demands even more. Farming while Black demands you fight history and systems stacked against you.
Freedom Acres Ranch is a veteran-owned, family-operated ranch and is one of about 19 Black-owned farms in Colorado, according to the Black Farmers Index. The ranch is in Yoder, Colo., a small unincorporated community founded by an Amish Mennonite in 1904. Yoder, located approximately 40 minutes east of Colorado Springs and about 14 miles south of Calhan, has a population of less than 1,500, according to the 2020 Colorado census. The majority race in Yoder is Caucasian, making up 82.5% of residents. The next most common racial group is Hispanic at 11.1%, and Blacks make up 0.3% of the population.
The Mallery’s didn’t slip quietly into Yoder — their arrival was well known. And it wasn’t long after they bought and moved onto the land that conflicts began and still continue.
They expected the typical challenges of ranching. Instead, they found themselves in a conflict that has come to symbolize broader tensions over race, land, and community in rural America.
“We’ve been told that we don’t look like real farmers,” Nicole says. “The bottom line is we had the audacity to buy too much land.”
The couple alleges their white neighbors harassed them—threatening them with guns, chasing them on the road, and harming their livestock—while local law enforcement ignored their pleas for protection. In turn, neighbors accused the Mallery’s of intimidation, and in February 2023, CW was arrested on felony stalking and other charges, all of which were later dropped.
At the heart of the dispute is the contested ownership of an easement, Truckton Road, a strip of land leading to both the Mallery and Clark properties. The disagreement spiraled into restraining orders, counterclaims, and more than 170 calls to law enforcement between 2022 and 2023.
The Clarks have since moved.
“I feel like I don’t just have a neighbor problem,” explains Nicole. “I have a sheriff problem.”
She and CW say there have been threats on their lives, stalking, animals being poisoned, fences destroyed, resulting in loss of cattle, and even a chicken coop set on fire have fallen on deaf ears.
El Paso County Sheriff Joseph Roybal, the county’s first Hispanic sheriff, and Deputy Emory Gerhart, who ran the county’s Rural Enforcement and Outreach Unit, have defended their office’s handling of the matter. For the Mallery’s, the ordeal has become more than a neighborhood fight over property rights. The sheriff is up for reelection in November 2026 and doesn’t have a challenger.
Nicole describes her arrests as “traumatizing. I felt so powerless,” she says. “But it spurred a community of people to rally behind us. I realized we were not alone.” The couple currently have no tickets, no warrants, and no pending court hearings.
The Mallery’s have a petition on Change .org advocating for the termination and removal of Gerhart and seeking an independent investigation from the Colorado attorney general. The petition has more than 12,000 verified signatures.
A Crisis for Black Farmers
In May 2021, authorities were called to do a welfare check on a part-time convenience store clerk who was a ranch hand for the Mallery’s. The body of 43-year-old Donaciano Amaya was found. DNA evidence led to the arrest of Kevin Armando Chaparro-Macias on suspicion of murder. His court dates are scheduled for October and November 2025.
CW says he believed Amaya’s homicide was meant as a warning for him and his wife to leave Yoder, but the sheriff’s office stated it was not a racially motivated act against the couple.
To CW and Nicole, it reflects a deeper struggle over safety, belonging, and how race and land ownership continue to shape rural life.
Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice confirmed with Ark Republic, a New Jersey-based Black news site, that the criminal justice agency was actively investigating claims made by the Black Colorado ranching couple. CW claims the rural community wants to steal his land, especially after he turned down numerous requests to lease his acreages to local whites.
Farming while Black is especially hard because of systemic racism, generations of land loss, and discrimination in access to credit, debt relief, grant funding, and support services.
Services like the Farm Service Agency (FSA) support farms and farming communities with programs including disaster relief and low-interest loan programs. However, programs like the Regional Food Business Centers that benefit small and midsize farms, including many operated by minority farmers, are being eliminated in response to Trump’s orders barring diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
“Think of the USDA like America’s food table,” says CW. “It’s important that we have a voice at that table.”
In the shadow of America’s vast agricultural heartland, Black farmers represent a resilient yet dwindling force, comprising just 1.4% of the nation’s producers and operating less than 1% of farmland, a stark decline from the 14% peak in 1910, when they owned up to 16 million acres. Today, according to the latest USDA Census of Agriculture released in 2024, only about 32,700 Black-operated farms span roughly 5.3 million acres. Numbers dropped by more than 4,000 between 2017 and 2022 alone due to entrenched discrimination, limited access to loans and subsidies, and economic pressures exacerbated by climate change and federal policy freezes under the Trump administration.
Recently, the USDA ended key support for Black farmers, citing that they will no longer use the term “socially disadvantaged,” because historic discrimination has been sufficiently addressed.
This ongoing crisis, rooted in a century of USDA-backed inequities, threatens not only the livelihoods of these farmers but also the broader push for racial equity in food production. Meanwhile, advocacy groups like the National Black Farmers Association fight for reparations and reform amid frozen funding and heirs’ property disputes that continue to erode Black land ownership
Sustainable, Community-centered Farming
Fewer Black farmers means less access to mentorship, peer networks, and political representation in agricultural policy. However, when the government is slow to help, various organizations like AYA Foundation step in to give aid where needed. The organization is one of the first public charity community foundations in Colorado dedicated to serving the Black community.
Wild Boyd Farms, located about an hour northeast of the Mallery’s ranch, is the recipient of a $20,000 grant from AYA to expand the farm’s operations.
The Boyd family purchased a 10-acre homestead in Matheson, Colo., in 2018. They now lease more than 8,500 acres. They care for and nurture shorthorn cattle, Katahdin sheep, Boer and Nubian goats, and more. According to their website, their clean meats and products are sold to nonprofits, commercial clients, schools, individuals, and the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Wild Boyd was the first Black farm to have its protein, burger and blueberry sausage, showcased at the National Western Center and Stock Show in the history of the Colorado Stock Show.
“I love the Matheson community,” Wild Boyd Founder Terrance Boyd told Regeneration Rising, an agrarian podcast hosted by the Quivira Coalition last year. Quivira is a nonprofit that builds resilience on working lands to support the future of farmers and ranchers.
“I didn’t have a hard time living in rural America; my family does not have a hard time because our political views, our values, our morals line up with the community in the county. It was a smooth transition for us, for the most part,” he explained.
While Boyd’s approach to farming is rooted in innovation and care for the land, his experience as a Black farmer has been markedly different from others in the state. Boyd admits he hasn’t had the issues the Mallery’s are experiencing, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t had issues.
Boyd, a first-generation farmer, prides himself on the use of regenerative farming practices, like using chicken tractors and naturally grazing livestock. A chicken tractor is a bottomless chicken coop that can be moved around, allowing the chickens to scratch at the earth and create vegetation growth.
Regenerative agriculture is a holistic approach to farming that focuses on restoring soil health, enhancing biodiversity, and improving ecosystems. Regenerative agriculture also focuses on the importance of knowing where your food comes from. Each crop or animal carries the story of the hands that raised it, reminding us that food is not just a product, but the result of perseverance, care, and connection to the land.
Recent changes at the USDA, combined with economic pressures and legal challenges, suggest that discrimination, harassment, and threats remain serious and growing concerns for many Black farmers, especially as race-based support programs are being scaled back.
Yet despite these challenges, Black farmers are at the forefront of regenerative, sustainable, and community-centered farming. Farming has long been woven into Black history, and farmers have kept alive traditions of resilience, persistence, and innovation. Many also feel pressure to educate, advocate, and fight for justice while simply trying to farm—making the workload even heavier.
Working Together for Future Generations
Persistence has paid off for the Mallery’s, who were named Farmers of the Year by the National Black Farmers Association last year.
The ranch raises several varieties of goats, horses, pigs, cows, chickens, and turkeys, all of which can be ordered in person or online. The modest store is open on the weekends and features teas and honeys from other Black farms.
“It’s a beautiful thing when we all work together,” says CW. “Because together we are stronger.”
The Mallerys moved to Colorado from Texas after floods from Hurricane Harvey displaced them, and brought the harsh and unexpected reality of food insecurity. That experience solidified their goals and belief that “farmers save lives.”
Their website states their “vision is to create a world where everyone—regardless of demographics or socioeconomic status—has access to fresh, healthy, farm-to-table food.”
The Mallery’s story gained wide online attention after the Ark Republic ran a two-part series on the couple’s allegations in 2023. At that time, a Go Fund Me was launched on their behalf, with donations going towards enhanced security, privacy, and electrical fences and legal fees. As of mid-September, $236,000 has been raised. The Rocky Mountain NAACP and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Colorado Holiday Commission are among the organizations that have supported the Mallery’s.
The couple says they need about 10 ranch hands to run their operation most effectively, but have not been able to hire enough. Some volunteers have reached out, which has helped.
Being shorthanded doesn’t stop the ranch from hosting events throughout the year, including movie nights, Derby day, and Juneteenth celebrations. In October, their annual Fall Festival & Trail Ride includes live music, line dancing, hayrides, kids’ activities, and a bonfire with s’mores at sunset.
“Retreat at the ranch, rent the ranch, or just come for a visit. We offer so much,” says Nicole.
“I ask myself every day, ‘Why are we staying?’ But then something amazing will happen, like a busload of children arrives, and we teach them about agriculture and being in charge of your own food,” she adds. “When I see their faces light up when planting or feeding the animals, then I know what we’re doing is so much bigger than all this. And I think of my ancestors, then I know it’s not in me to run or to be put out.”
For CW, the years of conflict have been a harsh education. But, he stands tall in his cowboy hat with Nicole–in her signature pearls–by his side and speaks of a life rooted in the endless cycle of ranching: weather, toil, the turning seasons, days marked by hard work, and the natural rhythm of the ranch. “At the end of the day, we’re fighting to farm in peace,” he proclaims. “This is my dream.”
Each time CW swings onto Freedom and rides across the wide-open pastures, the scent of hay and dry earth rises around him, and the steady thump of hooves across the acres carries a sense of reclamation. He feels it—his land, his work, his dreams, all aligned. Every hoofbeat is an ancestral heartbeat of resilience, not just to his land, but his resolve, his freedom, and the quiet, unshakable life he has fought to build and to the life he has fought to preserve.
Contributor’s note: For more information about Freedom Acres and upcoming events, visit https://freedomacresranch.com/. For more information about Wild Boyd Farms, visit https://www.wildboydfarm.com.
