Once in a Lifetime Horse

Have you ever noticed that the horses you call your once-in-a-lifetime horses often belong to another chapter of your life?

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The horses who felt effortless. The “they don’t make them like that anymore” horses. The ones who forgave your mistakes before you knew they were mistakes.The ones who made you feel capable, confident, and somehow larger than your fears.

They took care of you. They were the horses you attach the phrase “ignorance is bliss” to when you think back on your time together. 

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Do you remember the horses before the horses you now question, and protect, rehab, and analyze? The horses you find yourself learning, fixing, questioning, trying to do better by…

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Do you spend time trying to become the version of yourself you think that once-in-a-lifetime horse deserved?

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Do you search for the person you were back then?The one who worried less.The one who trusted herself more.Or maybe the one who simply didn't notice all the reasons she thought she shouldn't.

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I feel like people believe once-in-a-lifetime horses are becoming harder to find.

I'm not sure that's true.

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I think what is becoming harder to find are humans who still know how to belong to themselves.

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We live in a world overflowing with information, and growth is a beautiful thing. But information can become so loud that we lose the sound of our own guidance. We begin looking everywhere for answers except within.

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What if your once-in-a-lifetime horse lives within every horse who has come after them?

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What if the magic of those horses wasn't that they were extraordinary… But that you met them before you learned to doubt yourself. 

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And maybe the horse standing in front of you today is not asking you to become someone better. Maybe they're asking you to come home to the person you were before the doubt and worry and attachment to what’s right and wrong. Sure, maybe a little wiser, maybe making a few different decisions, but no less free than the kid who believed their horse could conquer the world. 

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Can those solid, trustworthy, “don’t need a savior,” once-in-a-lifetime horses find us when we've lost our power? 

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I think they can. 

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Sometimes through wisdom, sometimes through innocence, and always through the parts of us that still remember how to trust, and how to believe in one another. 

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When I think about my version of that horse and my mind wants to say… “Man, they just don’t make them like that anymore,” I’m reminded that here in 2026 there is a young girl with a horse, who is having the absolute time of her life connecting with her once-in-a-lifetime horse. 

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There will never not be a time where once in a lifetime horses do not exist. 

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And if you open your heart, they might be right in front of you.