“Midlife is your best and last chance to become the real you.” The Harvard Business Review gets it. New York’s Agency Five-O gets it. Do you?

“Midlife is your best and last chance to become the real you,” declares the Harvard Business Review. “A new age group is entering midlife—and some members are tackling it differently than those in generations past,” relates the Wall Street journal.

Duh.

It just cracks me up that the so-called “expert analysts” are now finally getting on board with the idea that this HUGE group of people now entering their era of midlife, empty nests, retirement, and on the leading edge of the baby boom, elder care, is going to shake up and redefine this stage of life just like we did all the ones before it.

In a meeting of the American Advertising Federation I attended recently a presentation by New York City Agency Five-O’s Brent Bouchez made me want to stand and cheer. Of course I didn’t because I was in a roomful of 20-something advertising hotshots looking a little bit confused and a tiny bit indignant. Brent’s topic was ‘Why 39-64 is the new 18-35 any why you need to get there first.”

Finally. Advertising that understands it’s not in Kansas anymore, and the so-called “sweet spot” of advertising has moved from the age the boomers used to be to the age they are now. Again I say, “Duh.” And, it appears, some of the smarter ones seem to be changing their tune.

Brent showed us a few commercials to illustrate this point and I realized (having studied the effect of subliminal advertising quite a bit in college) that the subliminal downer this across-the-board, off-target focus must be doing on all our middle aged psyches. “I feel invisible” one survey respondent said. “I feel like I disappeared,” said another. Stil more interesting is that the commercial he showed that depicted peace, joy, meaning and introspection still appeals to the younger audience without offending the 39-64s.

Why is this? “Because everyone, even the younger groups, aspire to that world,” Brent explained. My favorite quote Brent used, though, actually came from Alec Baldwin (not someone I would normally quote about anything, but nevertheless, his comment aligns): “The day I turned 50 I realized I had plenty of time, just none to waste.”

As Brent and Agency Five-O are quick to point out and are definitely tuned in to: Today in America, the average head of household is 52. The average new car buyer is 56. The average Mac user is 50. the average Amex card holder is 57. The fact is, these days all the decision making, all the buying power and all the money is in the hands of a more mature consumer.”

So not only has our personal stage shifted to put us right in the center of becoming the very best version of who we were meant to be as individuals, but it’s time to claim the world’s economic stage and drive the decisions that will keep us at the top of this game far into our sunset years.

Turning our conversation back to horses (as my conversations almost always do) it is also a time where we can enjoy our midlife horses as never before. Because of the factors brought to light by all of the above, combined with the economic challenges of recent years (but I prefer to think it’s more about our sheer numbers!) all kinds of horse events and activities are now springing up for us. Upper age barriers are being relaxed, adult and even some senior novice classes are being added in almost every discipline, and equipment and products are entering the marketplace every single day to help us enjoy our horses and follow our dreams regardless of any age barriers, real of imagined, that used to exist.

In Chapter 5 of The Smart Woman’s Guide to Midlife Horses, “Find Your Happy Trail” we explore some of these opportunities in hopes of reigniting your old horse dreams and encouraging you to get out there and take advantage of this unparalleled time, in history and in your own life, to take full advantage of this “last and best chance to become the real you.”

Got a story you’d like to tell? There’s nothing I like better that stories of reclaiming lost or forgotten dreams! We all need encouragement from time to time, and this is the place to tell our stories and cheer each other on as we take full advantage of where we are now to become the very best version possible of who we really are inside. Comment here, join us on Facebook, Tweet your thoughts and encouragement on this topic, share your competition videos on YouTube or drop me an email. I’d love to help add your story to our Midlife Horses Community!

The secret to midlife fitness? Hail to the wisdom of Curly. It’s just one thing.

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Are you old enough to remember “City Slickers” the 1991 movie about midlife reinvention, searching for a lost smile, and finding it with the help of horses and cattle and a grizzled old trail boss named Curly? Oh, of course you are. In this lighthearted (and manly) romp through the timeless values of the Old West, I’ll have to say the character that made the biggest impression on me was ‘ol Curly (played by Jack Palance).

Why do I remember Curly? Because Curly set me free with the profound nature of one single line that has stuck with my ADD-rattled soul ever since:

“Ya want to know the secret of life?” Curly asks. (I’m pretty sure he was talking to me)

Of course they did. That was, after all, why they were there.

Curly held up a gnarled old forefinger. “It’s this.”

“Your finger? “ Asks the Billy Crystal character.

“It’s one thing.”

What is that one thing?

“That’s what you have to figure out.”

Applying the wisdom of Curly to our Midlife Horses Fitness Challenge, I ask you now:

What is the secret to improving our fitness?

Just one thing.

According to Colonial Country Club Fitness Director (and my new Midlife Fitness Quest hero,) Rebecca Slemmons, everything counts. We don’t have to run a mile, but what if we jog down the barn aisle with our horse? (Good groundwork practice, too!). Rebecca (and we’ll get to more of this in later posts) developed for us a customized Midlife Horses Fitness plan that uses this “one thing” logic and the realization that while we probably don’t have much time for traditional workouts, we do have plenty of tiny opportunities as we go about our daily business to find “one thing” to add to each thing we do all day that will turn even the most mundane chores into workout tools.

What better solution to our midlife fitness conundrum than just doing what we do and adding the “one thing” to each activity that engages a specific set of muscles with the intent of giving them a little work? If we do this consistently, before too long we’ll be “working out” all day, every day (just like our pioneer foremothers) without really even realizing it (except in looser jeans and stronger constitutions.) As we continue on our Midlife Horses journey, have a high need to build and protect our fitness to ride stronger and stay healthy to ride longer.

So to start with, let’s just agree that the secret to midlife fitness is “just one thing.” If we can commit to adding “just one thing” to our normal daily routine, every time we think of it (and do try to make a point of thinking of it!), we can make some fairly serious fitness strides over time without even realizing we’ve amped up our efforts.

Sneaky. And it just might work.

So just for today, what is that just one thing going to be for you? According to Curly, that’s what you have to figure out. But with all due respect, I do think we can help each other long this path by sharing our ideas and discoveries of what sneaky opportunities to increase our fitness may be lurking in our own daily activities.

We touched on this recently in our Facebook community, where Jennifer told us that all day, every day, in everything she does, she pays attention to her core and lifting and keeping those muscled tight as she performs various chores. That’s a good one. I posted earlier about the “suck in” exercises proposed by the Weight Watchers leader. Silly, but boy does it work those abs!

Last week (and this is also in The Smart Woman’s Guide to Midlife Horses on page 68) I started thinking about the “thoracic girdle.” I was having some trouble with shoulder and neck muscles (made worse, I’m sure by slumping for hours on end at the computer.) and was advised by Licensed Massage Therapist Tom Vennum to roll my shoulders back and down then align “ear hole, shoulders and hips”, sitting, standing, and walking. He told me to envision those women who carry big jugs of water on their heads. I do this now as I type, but I also immediately related it to riding. So my “one thing,” right now, is this. When I get up to go downstairs after more coffee, the “one thing” there may be taking the stairs coming back up two at a time, simulating a deep walking lunge (and if I do this enough, will help with getting on my horse from the ground!)

But enough about me. It’s your turn. Let us hear from you! Comment on this post, join us on Facebook and Twitter!

I found the answer to my midlife questions by getting back to horses. She found hers going back to school. How will you find yours?

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I’ve known from the inception of The Smart Woman’s Guide to Midlife Horses that it had some potential as kind of a crossover book. You don’t really have to have “horse dreams” to get the bigger idea of this book — and I’m glad to see that its truest purpose (stated very clearly right there on the back cover) is coming through loud and clear with all kinds of audiences. Nothing makes me happier (and there’s a special dance that goes along with that; just ask my daughters) than hearing that The Smart Woman’s Guide to Midlife Horses has encouraged someone to stop, ask, and answer, “What about my dreams? And Is it my turn yet? And If not now, when? And best of all, “If now, how?”

So yes, the book is, on one level, all about the social phenomenon now reaching full tilt in my generation — the midlife journey to revive our childhood “horse dreams.” But I did mean for it to be more than that. Much more. And, oddly enough, readers are getting it! In addition to the nice August 1 article by Kathleen Green in the Dallas Morning News, here’s a review that just came up on our Amazon.com page that made me do the happy dance:

Someone FINALLY understands! August 29, 2011

By grannymanhart

I have gotten questioned A LOT about my return to college after an absence of 40 years. During those years I was raising a family of six children, helping my husband and his dad by doing farm work and doing all the things moms do. When the kids had flown from the nest, I decided to go back to college and complete the degree I started in 1968. My husband had a hard time understanding why in the world I would want to do such an outrageous thing. THEN HE READ THE BACK COVER OF THIS BOOK. He looked at me and asked if I had read it. I hadn’t and so I did. I almost cried. THIS WAS ME! I told him it said exactly what I felt. WHY NOT NOW? AND IF NOT NOW….WHEN? I am 62, and love the freedom of learning and expanding my knowledge and meeting all types of people and am so glad I found this book to underline the need we all have for chasing that dream of ours, silly tho it may seem to some. Thank you, Melinda Folse. (I think my husband FINALLY understands!)

You know, I don’t think it gets much better than this!

What did you “get” from this book that spoke directly to your situation, with or without horses? I’d love to hear from you! (This little dance really makes my daughters roll their eyes. That’s part of its charm. And secretly, I think they kind of enjoy it — and are most likely working on one of their own.) Post your own reflections on our Facebook page (the first one to evoke the happy dance gets a free t-shirt!) or post a review on Amazon to tell others what else besides “horse sense” you “get” from The Smart Woman’s Guide to Midlife Horses.

Midlife Fitness wasn’t built in a day — and sometimes you just need a better architect

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Ok, so we’re coming to the end of the first month of our Midlife Horses Fitness Quest. We’ve tiptoed through some of the key issues and topics and ideas you’ll find in Chapter Four, “Leg UP!” of The Smart Woman’s Guide to Midlife Horses (but there’s plenty more where these came from. We actually only scratched the surface!)

So how are you doing with all this? While it’s true that, as they say, “Rome (or Rockstar abs) wasn’t built in a day . . .” have you at least taken those first few faltering steps toward a higher level of midlife fitness that will make you a more effective rider (and garner the surprised and reluctant envy of your non-horse friends)? When you look back over the last several weeks, have you made some small changes in your diet and exercise habits that are starting to add up?

I’ll continue to invite check ins and progress reports as you begin to reach those fitness goals you set for yourself at the beginning of this quest. And I’ll probably continue to share my own mile markers in hopes of either encouraging or entertaining you as I reach mine. Post your ideas, pictures and encouraging words! And by all means, if you run across something that works, don’t keep it to yourself — share it! In fact, I’ll send anyone who posts a midlife horses fitness idea a free t-shirt. (Don’t forget to email me with your idea, t-shirt size and mailing address!)

On a final note, I have a confession to make. I have a tendency to overdo. Yes. It’s true. And I do have a proclivity for all-or-nothing thinking (In fact, I may have elevated it to an art form). I was having such a hard time deciding between all the great fitness ideas, exercises and opportunities I had that I finally had to call in an expert. That’s right. I hired a trainer. For me, this time, and not my horse . (Remember how we decided to treat ourselves as well as we treat our horses?) Not in the movie star “my trainer is coming over to work me out” sense, but just to have a sit down with a certified fitness professional and laying out my goals, opportunities, concerns and time constraints and saying “fix it.” She did.

I’m still waiting on the final result (which, with her permission, I’ll share) of her plan to take all my “stuff“ (including two horses, three dogs, yoga, tennis, taekwondo, family, friends, and work deadlines and expectations), factor in my goals of weight loss and consciously addressing the five areas of fitness we’re focusing on here, and create a realistic, customized plan of attack that allows day-to-day flexibility, mix and match, plug and play effectiveness, and best of all, a checklist that will tell me when I’ve done plenty in each area for the week, so I can avoid the all-or-nothing thinking that has, historically, stopped me in my tracks. This will bring, I think, a sense of accomplishment from week to week and ease in knowing that I really have done what I need to do in the area of fitness.

Or, to put it in horsier vernacular, I need to learn when to say “whoa.” And to borrow from Clinton Anderson‘s horse training advice, I need to find for myself the right combination of “long rides, wet saddle pads and concentrated training.”

This trainer has the theory that “enough tiny, focused steps over the course of each day, strung together, can accomplish my midlife fitness goals over the weeks and months to come without a huge additional outlay of time or energy.” The other good news is we’ll revisit this grand design every 6-8 weeks to see how it’s working and to adjust as needed with the same goals in mind. This approach will, she says, protect me from overtraining, keep me accountable, and give me realistic guidelines for finding the balance that has, up until now, eluded me.

What are your Midlife Horses Fitness Quest complications? What stops you? What do you find confusing about working in working out? If you hired a trainer to do this for you, what would you tell him/her? Post your questions on our Facebook page and let’s start some conversations that will lead to better answers!

Midlife Horses Fitness Challenge: Build your own solution, one step at a time!

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In Chapter 4 of The Smart Woman’s Guide to Midlife Horses, I’ve provided a crossection of conditioning exercises, regimens and ideas I ran across that fit particularly well with midlife fitness goals and midlife horsemanship. (or horsewomanship, as it were).

And even I have to admit, all this seems a bit overwhelming.

With all we already have on our plates, it is very easy to blow right past these pages because there is no way in hell or anywhere else we’re going to find enough time to really do all this. Who am I kidding? I wrote the book and this chapter, considered all at once, makes me roll my eyes.

But here’s the thing. Even though it looks a bit overwhelming because I did gather and present all these ideas in one place, it doesn’t mean we have to do all of them at once. In fact, if you just pick one idea and do it you’re going to most likely be ahead of where you are now. And, while some of these ideas may not fit well with your own situation, it is quite possible to use them as springboards or templates for whatever does fit your life and routines. (For example, I don’t have to muck stalls because I have full care boarding; however, the conscious and simultaneous tightening and release of abs and glutes while sweeping and mopping my kitchen floor achieves the same effect — and brings the side benefit of much cleaner floors! (See “How to make barn chores count twice” [p74] for specific ideas, then adapt them to fit whatever chores you do on a regular basis.)

So feel free to pick and choose, in no particular order, the things that make sense to you, your life, and your starting fitness level. The results you feel with that one thing will most likely inspire you to do more. I know it did for me. The stronger I started to feel, the more I wanted to do! The trick is to keep it gradual so you sneak up on this goal.

To that end — and, in keeping with this Midlife Horses fitness challenge I issues earlier this month, I’ve made the commitment to incorporate one new thing each week until I reach the full scale, balanced conditioning program that addresses the five key areas of fitness outlined on pages 61-62: aerobic capacity, core strength, flexibility and balance, weight training and interval “short burst” conditioning.

What are you doing to improve your conditioning this week? Post your ideas and progress as a comment on our Facebook page and let’s keep encouraging one another to get stronger, one step at a time!

A big thank you to Colonial Country Club Ladies Luncheon Series for inviting me to be their August speaker!

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At first, I wondered what I would talk about with this crowd, a group more accustomed to hosting style shows, politicos, and noted experts in something or other as their speakers. I’m no expert, but I have written about a lot of interesting things and people, so I decided to go with that. In the mix, of course, I got to talk about the creation of The Smart Woman’s Guide to Midlife Horses, and all the unexpectedly synchronistic ideas, people and experiences that came together to result in this book.

One interesting thing I’m discovering in almost every group I speak to (formally and informally), is that while many are intrigued by the idea of Midlife Horses, they also relate to the metaphorical side of this book — and there’s always a handful whose eyes light up with the easily recognizable glow of old “horse dreams,” and I’m pretty sure they go home with the full intention of, as Koelle Simpson puts it, “bringing a little equine energy into their lives.”

Meet Maximo, the horse that nosed me under the midlife bus.

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When I went to the Equine Experience retreat at Hacienda Tres Aguilas near San Antonio Texas, I had no idea what to expect. I had just bought a horse the summer before, we were still getting along pretty well at that point, but something about this new relationship in my life compelled me to want to learn more.

This retreat, as its literature explained, was hosted by the three “eagles,” Doctors Tom, Adele, Deborah McCormick, who wrote two of my favorite horse books, Horse Sense and the Human Heart (Health Communications, 1997), and Horses and the Mystical Path (New World Library, 2004).

I discovered this opportunity quite by accident (if there is such a thing, which, increasingly, I’m starting to doubt). According to their course literature, passed on to me by a freind who knew I enjoyed delving into such matters, the McCormicks were trained in “Psychoanalytic and Jungian Psychology with an expertise in Object Relations Theory and mysticism.” I had no idea what all that meant, but it sounded pretty serious. I was intrigued.

My intrigue grew with the fact that they had traveled the world studying with an impressive list of greats in both psychology AND horsemanship, including the Celtic traditions of horsemanship. This last part REALLY got my attention. Folding what they had learned about horses and humans into this retreat, the Drs. McCormick called upon their championship Peruvian horses to help participants “explore the transcending connection between horses and people.” The Equine Experience Retreat (which, by the way, is still held several times each year at their beautiful Texas Hill Country ranch) promised “a place to find inner peace, growth, and creativity.”

Well, I don’t know about you, but I’ve been looking for that stuff for most of my adult life. Sign me up!

So I naively packed my riding boots and clothes (not understanding that this was not going to be a riding experience at all) and headed off to the Hill Country to hunt for that elusive “still place in my heart” the McCormicks promised would help me learn to connect with the “heart and rhythms of nature.” Especially, I hoped, with the heart and rhythm of my increasingly agitated horse, Trace.

Even then I realized on some level that it was my own escalating agitation and stress that was coming back at me through the misbehavior of my horse. He was simply mirroring what was going on inside me, but it would be a while before I learned about that. (Chapter 10, to be exact, of my new book, The Smart Woman’s Guide to Midlife Horses, a somewhat errant chronicle of this journey. At this point, we are still in Chapter 1, headed toward Chapter 2 where a Peruvian horse named Maximo escorted me to the trailhead of my midlife horses journey.

Here’s a book excerpt to describe how it all unfolded:

“The day before, an aging Peruvian horse named Maximo had demonstrated for the group how he could use his buddy sourness to play my overactive nurturing instinct like a cheap fiddle. Then, as I later tried to lead him “with authority,” he plain-old ignored my pace and used each turn as opportunity to graze, oblivious to my “authoritative” yanks on the lead rope. “Max sees that you have no boundaries,” Deborah McCormick, Ph.D., explained to me and to the group. The message resonated with issues I had dealt with time and again in my life, without resolution.”

Do you cringe when people say how “nice” you are? Do you habitually sacrifice your own needs (or wants) to accomodate the needs (and wants) of others? Then maybe it’s time for your midlife horses!

“Horses see us for who we are on the inside,” agree many of the popular “horse whisperers” of today (who are parroting, by the way, the grandaddy of them all, Tom Dorrance.). The bottom line for those of us who have chosen midlife horses as a journey to rediscover who the heck we are? Watch the behavior of the horses you interact with very closely. The inner reality is closer than it appears.

Happy Trails!

Want to watch a horse diagnose CEO disease?

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Ok, this is just plain funny. If you remember that old Hans Christian Anderson fable, “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” (and I’ll just bet you do) . . . and if you’ve ever spent any time in or around a corporate setting, you’ve most likely seen firsthand the condition some business analysts call “CEO Disease.”

This is a rampant condition where no one in the workplace is willing, for fear of reprimand, political fallout, or worse, job loss, to confront an ineffective or counterproductive leader. Instead, they just follow along, doing their tasks as assigned, and at the same time, each doing his or her part in letting the company drift from its core purpose.

I have been fascinated in recent conversations with HerdWise CEO Kathy Taylor about how equine assisted learning can reveal the dynamics of work teams, uncover surprising blocks to productive relationships that hinder corporate leaders, and even demonstrate in an unforgettable way how different leadership styles are needed to meet the needs of the team and the objective of the task at hand. By mimicking the energy of a leader, horses mirror workplace dynamics in graphic, unforgettable and often, humorous ways.

But by far the funniest and most telling thing I ever saw was this video of a CEO “leading” his team in their effort to get Kathy’s therapy horse, Roxy, over a pole in the center of a pen. This is especially funny if you know that Roxy has no qualms about walking over that pole. It’s a task she often does easily and willingly. But she clearly sees though this guy and no amount of “leading” — or coaxing or cajoling (and I believe there might have even been a trail mix bar bribe involved) will get Roxy over that pole.

Watch also how his team follows him around and defers to his ineffective antics. One lady gives a half-hearted attempt to support his effort by trying to block Roxy from leaving, and she even tries to reinforce his instruction by pointing the way they want Roxy to go. This is clearly a work team accustomed to following its leader, even when what he’s doing is not accomplishing the team’s overall goal.

Thoughts, anyone? Humorous narration? Funniest narrative comment gets a free t-shirt!

Happy Trails!

Thank you, Dallas Morning News, for a great job portraying The Smart Woman’s Guide to Midlife Horses! Read it at http://dallasne.ws/qjHmBn

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A big thank you to Dallas Morning News Writer Kathleen Green and Pulitzer Prize Winning Photographer Robert Hart for this week’s Dallas Morning News My Town feature that highlighted The Smart Woman’s Guide to Midlife Horses. What I love most about Kathleen’s story (notwithstanding her exposure of my fairly serious (and obvious) Mexican food addiction and my enthusiasm for horse shopping at Teskeys) is that she really gets what this book is truly about — and the amazing power of embracing any midlife dream as an antidote to the sense of ennui that can settle in on all of us at this pivotal time of life.

What’s your dream? When you were young, what did you think you would always get around to doing — someday? Whatever it once was, I’d be willing to bet it’s still there. Really. Look under that pile of outgrown clothes, in the bottom of that overflowing junk drawer, or wedged between the post-it notes on your exploding calendar or bulletin board. You’ll find a hint of it.

Yes, for me it has always been horses that capture my imagination. But as the chapters of this book reveal, horses are really just a metaphor for anything that brings us a sense of freedom, a proverbial breath of fresh air, right here in the middle of our lives. It’s time to win independence over the day-to-day minutia that creeps in and takes over while we’re busy taking care of others and doing what we’re “supposed” to be doing as responsible adults.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all about being responsible and doing what we need to do. These are by no means mutually exclusive ideas. However, it is only when we embrace this natural midlife pause to reflect on our earlier dreams (whatever they are!) that we realize the opportunity is still there for us, on some level — and our dream is still waiting patiently for us to walk into the corral our subconscious built for it and make the decision to reclaim it.

What are you waiting for?

Happy Trails!

Special thanks to Rick Lamb for a delightful radio interview and an enlightening male perspective on my book!

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What a pleasure it was to talk with Rick Lamb on his radio show, “The Horse Show with Rick Lamb” about The Smart Woman’s Guide to Midlife Horses. Although I had never actually talked with Rick before, his reputation as the quintessential nice guy preceded him, and I’ll say I now fully agree with that assessment!

We covered a lot of good ground in our hour-long conversation, and even though after talking to so many women about this subject it was a little funny at first to discuss the whole midlife thing with a man, I’ll have to admit that I may have made a small tactical error. Somewhere in my assumption that the search for meaning, magic and mastery with the help of midlife horses is a phenomenon particular to Baby Boomer women, I think I got caught in my own stereotype!

As Rick pointed out, the Baby Boomer generation(s) are also chock full of men who are now finding their thrill and chasing their own forgotten horsemanship dreams. And, for many of these men, the issues horses help resolve are strikingly similar! Rick’s book, Human to Horseman, chronicles his own midlife horse journey, much as I did mine, so if any of you are looking for a view of the midlife horse experience from the male perspective, you ought to check this one out at www.ricklamb.com! Also, you’ll find several references to Rick’s earlier book, written with Dr. Robert Miller, DVM, called Revolution in Horsemanship within the pages (and listed in the resources) of The Smart Woman’s Guide to Midlife Horses.

If you’d like to hear this great conversation for yourself, just click here to visit Rick’s site. And, while you’re there (and to access all his great radio and TV shows and take a look at an impressive array of other books and products), be sure to sign up for a free membership! This site is a great resource for all kinds of horse information and entertainment — a place to visit often just to see what he’s up to!

Go give it a listen and let me know what you think — and if the interview sparked any follow up questions you’d like to ask either of us, please feel free to post your comment here and I’ll be sure to get back to you with a good answer!

Happy Trails!

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Category: Book info

“Midlife is your best and last chance to become the real you.” The Harvard Business Review gets it. New York’s Agency Five-O gets it. Do you?

The secret to midlife fitness? Hail to the wisdom of Curly. It’s just one thing.

I found the answer to my midlife questions by getting back to horses. She found hers going back to school. How will you find yours?

Midlife Fitness wasn’t built in a day — and sometimes you just need a better architect

Midlife Horses Fitness Challenge: Build your own solution, one step at a time!

Meet Maximo, the horse that nosed me under the midlife bus.

Want to watch a horse diagnose CEO disease?

Thank you, Dallas Morning News, for a great job portraying The Smart Woman’s Guide to Midlife Horses! Read it at http://dallasne.ws/qjHmBn

Special thanks to Rick Lamb for a delightful radio interview and an enlightening male perspective on my book!