The older I get, the more I don’t understand what is so horrible about aging. I’ve always heard my relatives complain about aging. They’ve complained about their faces sagging and wrinkling, their bones aching and creaking, their minds fading into a forgetful stew. Will all of these things happen? Of course they will! But honestly, who cares?
I can understand the feeling of missing a young body. I know I’m not very old myself yet, but already it takes me a couple days to get over falling off a horse. When I was younger I never thought twice about it. The first time I fell and couldn’t move my neck the next day, I was twenty-three years old, and I knew it was going to get worse from there on out. So I started making sure I do extra stretches in the morning to try and get everything as fluid as possible. I know I’ll never bounce like I did when I was a kid, but I can help take care of myself as much as possible. Most of my friends are older, and what I’ve heard from them is: if they can get out of bed in the morning then they just keep moving through the day and they get by just fine. They don’t let anything hold them back, not sore muscles or joints. They just keep moving, because if they stop then that is when the trouble starts. The natural horseman, Ray Hunt, had quite a worn out body when he died at the age of 69 from COPD. But he had configured a pulley system to hoist his saddle onto his horse, and he continued to ride up until his death in 2009.
We all try to keep our skin as blemish free as possible. Let’s face it, we could get skin cancer otherwise. But I’ve made my peace with the fact that my skin may look like a forty year old’s at the age of thirty. I work around horse trainers all day, those that have lived with their faces toward the sun. I think they all look beautiful. You know they can get the job done and they won’t be messed with. Unfortunately youth is promoted all over the magazines, tips on how to stay looking younger, and celebrities that are sixty years old that look more like they are coming into their forties. In the horse training business, I find the older your face looks, the more respect you get. I live in a world where age is accepted.
In the horse world, trainers just get better with age. Shawn Flarida at the age of 45 won the NRHA Open Futurity for the sixth time in 2014 AFTER he had already been inducted into the NRHA Hall of Fame in 2011. In 2008, at the age of seventy, George Morris coached the jumping team that won the team Gold Medal at the Olympic Games in Hong Kong. Sherry Cervi, the four time World-Champion Barrel Racer, won her fourth World title in 2013 at the age of 38. Victor Espinoza just rode American Pharoah to the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years, and he’s the oldest jockey to do so at 43 years old!
Clearly none of these riders have let age slow them down. Age just means we have more wisdom and talent to share! Another great thing about aging is that the older you get, the more you can get away with. When you’re younger, people tend to watch you, make sure you’re worthy of joining their crowd. They don’t trust you yet, even though you haven’t been given a chance to be trusted. But as you age, people will start to accept you. Even if you turn into a nagging, loud old lady who everyone can hear from a mile away; people respect those who stay true to themselves. The older we get, we become truer to ourselves than we ever were because we don’t have time to care what anyone else thinks and we have a job to get done! Let’s face it, no one wants to mess with the hunched over old lady with shriveled claws for hands who is yelling at her students like a drill sergeant. I can’t wait to be that lady!
(Photo credit to Maddie’s always photogenic POA Chip!)