What Horses Teach Us About Getting Back Up

Kimberlee, Theo, and Trainer Eddie Rodriguez

Recently, as I was noodling for writing topics, I went down the rabbit hole of horse idioms. If you Google that you will see a bunch of very familiar phrases which are related to horses and how that applies to human life. Goes to show whether we named it or not, we have been learning from horses for generations. One that that everyone knows, and is pretty easy to figure out the origin, is ‘get back on the horse’. This, of course, means when you fall off your horse you dust off the dirt and hop back on. In life it means after a setback or failure, dust off and move on. But not all falls are the same. Some falls are as simple as he went one way and I went another. We generally bounce up from that, and our horse is looking around as if to say, ‘where’d she go?’. We get back on and continue our ride without much thought about the event at all. But then there are those falls that leave us on the ground a bit longer. Horse runs off, or maybe he even stops, but you are slow to move. If we are lucky we stand up from that one, but we may be done for the day. We will, however, tend to our wounds and when the time comes we ‘get back on the horse’. What both of those falls have in common is change. We were riding and then we hit the ground. The amount of trauma depends on the event itself and so does the time it takes to recover. It’s easy to understand that concept as it relates to riding but becomes suddenly a bit more complex when we apply it to life. Change can be disruptive and it can be traumatic. It can be exciting or it can cause fear. What we do in the time between hitting the ground and getting back on is the journey of a lifetime. Sometimes we just hop back on and forget it. Sometimes we walk away in defeat and then become fearful. And sometimes it wasn’t the fall itself, but a culmination of falls that just makes it harder to get back up.

After my recent retirement I had a series of unfortunate events which caused me to pause. I did not fall off Theo but on a trail he and I were walking along and apparently, we didn’t fit in-between two trees. Well, he fit, I didn’t, and my knee slammed into it causing me to dismount. We walked out of the path back to where it was wider and I found something to stand on, remounted, and walked home. I got back on the horse immediately but then it took a couple weeks before my knee was ready again. I decided to use that time to bond and while grooming him he stepped back, snapped a crosstie which came sailing into my hand and required stitches. So now I’m like a scarecrow, busted knee, busted hand. At this point I’m feeling dejected and stupid. Honestly, I was wondering what I got myself into. He’s huge and I’m green. He is well trained, but he is still a horse and will do horse things and no matter how many videos I watch it’s not translating into real life. It took me a couple of days before I was ready to groom him again for fear he would back up and snap another clip. Should I quit? Am I really cut out for this? I look like a rag doll and these were just fluke accidents, what if something else happens?

But, I’m not a quitter and I love him with my entire being. I realized he was teaching me something without even trying. Be humble and…. It’s ok to ask for help. By the time you are in your mid 50s you are conditioned to just figure it out. At work you may be seen as falling behind if you ask for help, so you research things and try to learn on your own. In relationships you may not want to appear to be a burden, or needy, so you ‘figure it out’. When change hits we need a moment to understand what happened, analyze if damage has been done and then we react. We rarely ask for help. We swing at the curve balls as they come in until we are overwhelmed and stressed. We carry the weight on our backs and try to keep moving. The change from the saddle to the ground is usually quick. However sometimes the changes in our life happen over time which actually makes it harder to recognize. In horses we see this when our horse does a tiny thing like makes us move our feet. We may not notice it, but he did. A few months later we are wondering why our horse is misbehaving but this was a progression over months of missed queues. While sudden change can punch us in the gut, subtle changes may leave us confused. How the hell did this happen? I suspect many of us over 50 are experiencing a lot of the same things: empty nesters, wrapping up a career, wondering what comes next. It’s harder to get back on the horse when we aren’t quite sure how we ended up on the ground in the first place. It’s in that moment we can look at those closest to us, look to God, and say.. I need help getting up. I’m happy to say I reached out for help and decided to start with ground training again and will work my way back on Theo with a better understanding of him, of me and of the change I am working through.

Trainer Eddie Rodriguez of Decatur, Texas.

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Kimberlee & Theo

Written by Kimberlee Delany

Kimberlee Delany is a multi-faceted athlete, technology professional, and writer based in North Texas. Whether commanding a room in the corporate tech sector, executing a precision lift on the national weightlifting stage, or working in the pasture with horses, Kimberlee brings an unwavering sense of "grit and resilience" to everything she touches.

Kimberlee grew up and spent the formative years of her career on the East Coast. Holding a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, she channeled her understanding of human behavior into a highly successful, multi-decade career in the technology industry. Demonstrating a classic trajectory of continuous improvement, Kimberlee built her tech career from the ground up—starting at the IT help desk and climbing through every technical role to establish herself as a high-level Technical Business Advisor.

An avid athlete for over twenty years, Kimberlee has explored a wide range of physical disciplines from triathlons to Olympic weightlifting, competing in local and regional events up and down the East Coast and across Texas.

Today, she is an elite competitive Masters Olympic weightlifter within the USA Masters framework. Coached out of Dallas, she won third place overall at the National Championships in Boise, Idaho, and went on to represent the United States on the international stage at the International Masters Weightlifting Association (IMWA) World Championships, posting 72 kg total. For Kimberlee, the barbell is both a passion and a vital release—a practice she famously calls "sweating out the crazy" to balance the demands of an intense corporate career.

After turning 50, Kimberlee boldly stepped into an entirely new world by learning to ride and handle horses. This pursuit quickly evolved from a hobby into a profound personal calling. Today, she is certified in Equine Assisted Learning (EAL) and has become a regular contributing writer for Equine Business Magazine.

Now in her vibrant post-career chapter, Kimberlee is exploring how horses act as mirrors to our souls, helping us embrace vulnerability and reshape our lives. She is a living testament to continuous evolution, proving every day that our most powerful transformations often happen after 50.

This article is from the July 2026 issue of Equine Business Magazine