10/05/2026
Sometimes I look out in the pasture at Chief and Sweet Pea and Iām taken right back to Montana⦠back to where so much of my story began. ā¤ļø
Chief was the horse who started me in āThe Method,ā but truthfully, he was the horse who started so much more than that.
He was there when I was still learning to see the little things. He taught me to slow down, pay attention, have patience, and keep trying when things didnāt go the way I thought they should. He taught me that sometimes the horse standing in front of you will teach you far more than you could ever teach them.
There are pieces of Chief in the horsewoman I am today. Every lesson, every mistake, every breakthrough, every frustrating day and every moment when everything finally came together⦠he was part of it.
Our story started under that big Montana sky, and I donāt think back then I could have imagined where life would take us. So much has changed. Weāve traveled a lot of miles, life has moved forward, and somehow my old boy made the journey right along with me.
Now weāre in Kentucky.
He doesnāt have a job anymore. Thereās nothing left for him to prove and nothing more I could ever ask of him. These days, his only responsibility is to enjoy his retirement beside his love, Sweet Pea, and let me return even a fraction of what he gave me. ā¤ļø
Thereās something that gets me about watching the horse who helped start your journey grow old beside you.
One day, all Iāll have are the memoriesāthe Montana days, the lessons, the rides, the struggles, the victories and all those ordinary moments I didnāt realize would become so precious.
But today, I still get to walk outside and see him.
And Iāll never take that for granted.
Chief, you were never ājust a horse.ā You are part of my story. Part of who I became. And no matter how many horses I train or where this life takes me, there will only ever be one horse who started it all.
And that was you. ā¤ļø
From Montana to Kentucky, all these years later⦠still together. š“ā¤ļø