After 35 years practicing healthcare law, I found myself asking a question I hadn’t expected: What else??
My kids had grown and left the house. I had just moved to a new town. The chapter I had known for decades felt like it was quietly turning its last page, and I wasn’t entirely sure what came after it. I knew I wanted to stay active. I knew I wanted to keep growing. I just didn’t know what that would look like yet.
Then one day, out of nowhere, I had an urge. Not a plan. Not a carefully researched decision. Just a pull toward something I had never done and couldn’t fully explain. I wanted to ride horses. I had no experience, no background, no idea what I was getting myself into. I just decided to act on it.
I was 58.
I started riding English style and was immediately humbled and hooked in equal measure. At 59, I found my way to Timucuan Ranch and began learning Western riding, a different discipline entirely, one that challenged me in ways I hadn’t anticipated. There were moments I felt the limits of my mobility, moments where my body reminded me I wasn’t 25. But those moments, if anything, made me more determined to continue.
It was at Timucuan Ranch that I met Estella Baker. She has been riding for decades, though she came to horses later in life herself. Watching her move through the world with such fearless energy, and watching our friendship grow naturally over time at the ranch, became one of the unexpected gifts of this whole journey. She reminded me, just by being herself, that there is no expiration date on loving something deeply.
What I didn’t anticipate was where the saddle would lead me next. In addition to maintaining my passion for health law, I’m now also pursuing further education in Equine Law, weaving together the legal foundation I’ve spent a career building with something else that genuinely lights me up.
My family was never surprised. They were proud. And that meant everything.
I share this because I think a lot of people, especially women at this stage of life, are sitting with the same quiet questions: Am I done?? What else is there? What’s next? The answer doesn’t have to be practical or perfectly timed. Sometimes it starts with an urge you simply decide to follow. It is never too late to begin. And it is never too late to keep becoming.
