Scientists used to think that brain connections developed at a rapid pace in the first few years of life, until you reached your mental peak in your early 20s. Your cognitive abilities would level off at around middle age, and then start to gradually decline. We now know this is not true. Instead, scientists now see the brain as continually changing and developing across the entire life span. There is no period in life when the brain and its functions just hold steady. Some cognitive functions become weaker with age, while others actually improve.

Some brain areas, including the hippocampus, shrink in size. The myelin sheath that surrounds and protects nerve fibers wears down, which can slow the speed of communications between neurons. Some of the receptors on the surface of neurons that enable them to communicate with one another may not function as well as they once did. These changes can affect your ability to encode new information into your memory and retrieve information that’s already in storage.

On the other hand, the branching of dendrites increases, and connections between distant brain areas strengthen. These changes enable the aging brain to become better at detecting relationships between diverse courses of information, capturing the big picture, and understanding the global implications of specific issues. Perhaps this is the foundation of wisdom. It is as if, with age, your brain becomes better at seeing the entire forest and worse at seeing the leaves.

This is a quote from the book, A Guide to Cognitive Fitness - 6 Steps to Optimizing Brain Function and Improving Brain Health, by the Harvard Medical School.

So in the second half of life your mental strength can be your ability to detect relationships between different aspects of horsemanship and different aspects of life for that matter. Your strength is probably not your ability to excel in one discipline. Instead it may be to combine the ideas of several disciplines into a unique horsemanship practice better suited to you and your horse.

In his book, From Strength to Strength - Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life, Arthur C. Brooks says that, “when you are young, you can generate lots of facts; when you are old you know what they mean and how to use them.

So I hope that you recognize your mental gifts in the second half of life. I hope that you can apply your wisdom gifts on your path to better horsemanship and a better life.

Here's a link to Descript,  my recommendation for audio and video editing.

And here's a link to the Second Half Horsemanship website.