During the summer of 2025, I travelled with friends on several horse back riding adventures, with time at a “Dude Ranch” in southern Virginia and, far more challenging, on the trail around the Ring of Kerry in Ireland. But this summer’s plans did not quite work out — and so it is on to planning for 2026. But, in the meantime, I read a truly remarkable account of a relationship between horses, family, and aging, in the online story of “Alzheimer’s Lessons from a Horse.”
I’m including my own photo from the last full day of riding in Ireland in 2024. The feature story from the article posted by The Chronicle of the Horse offers lovely photos of the writer and her mother-in-law, and the writer’s “heart horse,” called Cosmo, who bonded with family. The writer, Rosanna Fay, includes “five” practical suggestions for finding inspiration in later life, with or without the challenges of Alzheimer’s. One of my favorite lessons from her is “Repeat the Joy.” She writes:
“Alzheimer’s is a disease of repetition, and that can be heartbreaking. But repetition also offers an opportunity: You can repeat joy. Even if we watch the same video of Cosmo together daily, Bev responds as though its the first viewing. There is real beauty in that.”
Indeed!