Hi Melusine,
Almost 4 years ago I wrote a blog for Barnmice about older women getting back into riding. You can read it at http://barnmice.com/profiles/blogs/middle-aged-and-older-women-who-start-riding. I posted it on Barnmice on 7/28/2013, and it has been my most popular blog with over 6,000 views. My Barnmice name is Jackie Cochran (my real name).
I have MS. Luckily for me by the time I was diagnosed I had been riding seriously for over 20 years, so though I had long times out of the saddle from my MS I had no deep fears about riding or horses. One day I was thinking about my riding and it occurred to me that un-handicapped women who start riding in middle to old age faced much bigger challenges that I did riding with MS, since I had started riding seriously in my early 20’s (after about 4 years of trail riding as a child). I knew my way around horses and I knew how horses reacted to the world and to their riders. I never got into competition, but I trained my first horse (green-broke 5 yr. old Anglo-Arab gelding who had been gelded just 3 weeks before I bought him), and also trained 3-4 horses I bought as weanlings.
Remember when you write your piece that all these older women are BRAVE, otherwise they would never even try to ride a horse.
Hopefully I will get to read your piece on older women riding. I am interested in what you have to say!
Jackie Cochran
