Two girls. Two horses. 48 years apart. · Life Long Strength and Play

Two girls. Two horses. 48 years apart.

I have a photo of me and my cousin on horseback when we were about 14.

But it wasn't some one-time thing. We grew up riding together. My uncle would take the camper up to the Ridge where we kept our horses. We'd stay for a few nights and ride all day. No schedule. No rush. Just trails and sky and that feeling you get when you're a kid and the whole world is right in front of you.

It was glorious. I don't use that word lightly.

Life happened. Decades passed. We both moved on and got caught up in all the things that pull you away from the stuff that actually fills you up.

Then something beautiful happened. My cousin found her way back to horses in retirement. A new love for something that used to be our everyday.

She invited me to come ride with her in Montana.

Four hours on horseback through the mountains. The views were unreal. But that's not what got me.

What got me was how GOOD my body felt doing it. Four hours in the saddle. Up and down mountain trails. And I wasn't wrecked afterward — I was recharged. The mountain energy does something to you that I can't fully explain. It just fills you back up.

That doesn't happen by accident.

It happens because I built strength. Because I prioritized protein. Because I stopped treating my body like something to punish and started treating it like something worth investing in.

Five years ago I couldn't bend over to tie my shoes. Yesterday I rode a horse through the mountains for four hours and wanted to keep going.

That's not luck. That's the work showing up.

And here's what I keep coming back to — I'm grateful. Not just for the ride. For the ABILITY to ride. For legs that grip the saddle. For a back that doesn't give out. For energy that lasts past noon.

We didn't plan this as some big symbolic moment. She just wanted to share her new love with me. And I got to step back into something we shared as kids.

But sitting there on that horse, looking out at those mountains, I thought — THIS is what strength is for.

Not for the gym. Not for the mirror.

For the people you love. The places that recharge you. The life you're not done living yet.

The next 30 years can be the best 30.

I'm living proof. And yesterday was just another page in that chapter.

💪

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