Hutch in his 30s in classic riding outfit with long boots, breeches and whip, in the 1930s
He was one of the first or the first Black superstar in Britain, Leslie Hutchinson (1900 – 1969) – Hutch – the Grenada-born singer and musician, one of the biggest cabaret stars in the world during the 1920s and 1930s.
What is maybe less well known about him is that he not only loved horse racing but also riding fast himself with a seemingly Dionysian joie de vivre.
He had picked up the skill of horse riding in Paris where he went galloping in the Bois de Boulogne with the American playwright Natalie Clifford Barney who in her early twenties as a rebellious and unconventional young lady had made headlines by galloping through Bar Harbor while driving a second horse on a lead ahead of her and by riding astride instead of side-saddle.
Later in England Hutch would ride in Rotten Row, Richmond Park, Windsor and in New Forest near Bournemouth 'resplendent in his kit'. Once when galloping in the Downs near Brighton, ‘[s]omeone was acting the fool and whacked Hutch’s horse, which bolted...’ Hutch himself liked to show off by making his horse rear by urging it on and holding it back at the same time (Hutch by Charlotte Breese, pp. 122-123, 146).
One might say that the Ebony Horse Club in Brixton is carrying on a bit of this tradition with many Black riders, not to mention Kareem Rosser rising to the top of polo in the U.S.
As wonderfully sung in Hamilton:
But we’ll never be truly freeUntil those in bondage have the same rights as you and meYou and I.Do or die.Wait till I sally in
On a stallion with the first black battalion…
