In the premiere January 2024 episode of On the Real on IG Live, host Bob Bartlett sat down with horsewoman, fly fishing guide, and outdoor force of nature Emma Brown for an honest and heartfelt conversation.
Emma, at just 25, owns a horse training business on her family ranch in Longmont, Colorado, where she also works with beef cattle and provides inclusive riding and horsemanship lessons. She’s also a fly fishing guide at Budges Lodge, where she gets to combine her two great passions—horses and fly fishing—while helping others connect with the backcountry.
But the road to that lifestyle wasn’t exactly smooth.
Emma is a transracial adoptee, born in California and raised in a white family in rural Colorado. As the only person of color in her household and often the only one in her outdoor circles, she grew up navigating identity, belonging, and visibility from a young age.
“I still struggle a lot with identity,” she admits. “I know what I love to do and I know I’m good at it, but… I’m trying to understand that just being myself is enough.”
She started riding horses as a child and got her first horse at 17—without telling her parents. What began as a family boarding business turned into her own entrepreneurial journey to create a more inclusive space in the Western ranching world, one she says still lags behind the outdoor industry in terms of diversity.
The outdoor bug bit her early thanks to her dad, who handed her his old Sage rod. By high school, Emma was sneaking away to fish Boulder Creek with friends, then diving deeper through Trout Unlimited’s Greenbacks program. A senior project sparked her deeper involvement in conservation and leadership, and eventually, she joined Lincoln Hills Cares—a historic Black outdoor education and fly fishing organization in Colorado.
That’s where she found community.
“I met people who looked like me, who fished like me,” she says. “That was a game-changer.”
Today, Emma guides others through the water and the trail, building community in an industry still learning how to embrace equity and inclusion. She’s part of UFAN’s leadership team, and she’s intentional about bringing others—especially Black and brown youth—into spaces they’ve historically been left out of.
Asked what it’s like doing what she does in the bodies she’s in, in the world she’s in, Emma didn’t sugarcoat it.
“It’s hard,” she said. “But I’m learning to take up space. And I’m learning that who I am—how I show up—is enough.”
We couldn’t agree more.
