It’s easy to get burned out in the horse world. That is, unless you’re Lynette Bowman who, at almost 71, finds increasing joy in horses the longer she’s around them. 

And though Bowman has been a lifelong equestrian, it wasn’t until she was 65 and had recently lost her husband to cancer that she stepped into the jumper ring for the first time. 

“I had the time of my life,” the Carlsbad, California, resident said of that first rated show. And she hasn’t looked back. 

Bowman, the only child of a military family, moved every year or two of her childhood for her father’s deployments. Her parents recognized the challenges of the lifestyle on their young daughter. So when she expressed an interest at horses (starting with the coin-operated ones at the grocery store and progressing to pony rides at the fair), her parents bought a grade broodmare named Sabre Dancer, who was tolerant of her new owner’s limited knowledge.

“I knew nothing,” Bowman said. “Other than I loved that horse, and I loved to ride.”

Around The World With A Saddle

After only a year, Bowman had to say goodbye to her horse when the family left the United States for a string of overseas deployments in Hong Kong, Japan and the Philippines. 

“But I’d been bitten by the bug,” Bowman said. “And I started to realize how much I didn’t know. I wanted to get better, and I knew I needed lessons.”

So no matter where her family was stationed, her parents found a place for their daughter to ride. Horse became a grounding force for Bowman during those difficult years; no matter the location or the language barriers she faced, horses were universal. 

By high school, Bowman’s family was back in the U.S., and the family became horse owners once more when her father found a retiring racehorse for sale, cheap, at a nearby track. Bowman continued taking lessons at a nearby stable to continue her equestrian education. 

While Bowman’s college years in California were horseless, after graduation she enrolled in a horsemanship program near London, inspired by the 1961 two-part TV show “The Horsemasters,” and earned her British Horse Association instructor certification. 

Her dream was to return to the U.S. and open her own riding school. But her time in England made her realize her education was missing a vital piece: a business degree, something she believes all riding instructors should have in order to run a successful program.

She planned to return to California and enroll in some business courses, but those plans were derailed when her parents, then living in Iran for her father’s job, begged her to spend the Christmas holidays with them. She obliged. Once there, her mother—perhaps missing the companionship of her only child—told Bowman that if she wanted to return home, she’d have to get a job and pay for her ticket herself. 

“The Shah was still in power, so I drove to his stable, talked to the military colonel at the gate, and told him, ‘I want to work here’—and they hired me,” she recalled. “My first students were French, and they didn’t speak English. What an experience it was!”

But her time in Iran ended up being short-lived. The violent start of the Iranian Revolution resulted in the family’s emergency evacuation by the U.S. military. 

The Accidental Amateur

Bowman’s return to California was the start of what would be the longest horseless years of her life. She met and married Chuck Bowman, the couple had two daughters, and her next decade was consumed by the struggle to find balance as a working mother. She never earned the business degree but instead pursued a career in human resources in the pharmaceutical and device industry. 

It wasn’t until her own daughter got into riding—“it’s genetic,” Lynette said—that she climbed back into the saddle, hacking some horses around the lesson barn’s trails with her daughter. 

Eventually, the Bowmans bought their daughter a horse, which Lynette inherited when her daughter went off to college. For the next several years, she enjoyed easy trail rides with her newfound partner in those open windows of time that accompany an empty nest. 

When work required her to do long-term commuting to New Jersey, Lynette jumped back into horses with both feet. She found a little Thoroughbred called Three Michaels to lease, whom she later purchased, and the pair foxhunted regularly, attended judged trail rides and schooling shows. 

“All fun stuff,” Lynette said. “It was wonderful.”

But then life threw another curve ball. On a trip to South Africa, Lynette noticed that Chuck was unusually tired and struggled carrying his luggage. He had a little cough. It was odd, but they didn’t think much of it. But when he didn’t bounce back after their return home, he went to see his doctor, who sent him straight to the emergency room. He was diagnosed with late-stage metastatic colon cancer. 

‘Just How Short Life Is’

Lynette retired to care for Chuck, returning permanently to California. His disease was discovered in its late stages, and it progressed rapidly. Chuck died in June 2016, shortly after his diagnosis.  

Lynette brought her Thoroughbred “Mikey” back to California with her. On the East Coast, the gelding was used to ample turnout, but a similar situation was nearly impossible to find near San Diego. Lynette ended up at one of the only farms with green pastures: Hap Hansen Stables in Rancho Santa Fe, California. 

“I’d never been in a training program before,” Lynette said. “I didn’t even know what that meant.” 

But she came to look forward to her weekly lessons, especially in the early weeks and months following Chuck’s death. Another great distraction: For the first time in her life, Lynette received actual jumping instruction from Hansen. 

“We started over some little crossrails,” she said. “But that was the most my horse could do. So Hap started putting me on other horses who jumped, because I was enjoying it so much, and I just wanted to keep learning.”

He put Lynette on a lovely bay mare named Affair, and the pair clicked. The mare, Hansen told her, was for sale.

Her first thought was that she already had a horse. Her second thought was that this mare, a 12-year-old American-bred Dutch Warmblood (Akrobaat—Romance), was very likely out her budget. 

When she told Hansen those things, he shrugged nonchalantly, and said, “So just ride her until she sells.”

With her husband’s recent, sudden passing still very fresh, Lynette realized the mare was an opportunity she would regret passing up. In 2018, she purchased Affair.

“My husband had just died,” Bowman said. “I knew just how short life is. And I knew I just had to make this happen. This was my chance, and this was the horse.”

Hansen, she said, knew that before she did. 

“Hap knew she was my ride,” she said. “He had been watching me. He knew my strengths and weaknesses. There isn’t a horse on this planet better for me than she is. She’s my horse of a lifetime.” 

Discovering The Jumpers—At 65

But despite finding the perfect horse, Lynette wasn’t sure she wanted to jump right into the show ring. 

“I was just learning to jump; I was nowhere near the perfect rider,” she said. “And I didn’t think you should go to horse shows unless you rode perfectly. But my friends talked me into it, so I was 65 years old going to my first rated show, just showing the 0.80 [meter] jumpers. I was sweating bullets, but [Affair] just carted me around those first shows. I had the time of my life.”

When a friend suggested that the mare was getting some attention in the show ring and could likely be sold for far more than her purchase price, Lynette said, “I’m having a moment. I wouldn’t sell her for a million dollars!”

“Horse shows are the best education,” she said. “The stuff you learn at home, it helps you some. Sure. But riding and being at a horse show teaches so much. Even a bad show shows me what I get to go home and work on.”

Lynette credits Affair for the pair’s success, but also quietly puts time and effort into building her own strength, flexibility and riding knowledge. She stretches and walks six miles daily, and regularly does Pilates. She rides often, working to perfect her flatwork. And despite being at full-care boarding facility, she is involved with Affair’s care, even doing night-checks at the barn, because any time with her horse brings her joy.  

“[Chuck’s death] was a big fat nudge to live every moment,” she said. “My entire job right now is to be happy. And the way I’m happy is with horses, so I guess I’ll just do a lot with horses.”

So when she was recently offered a part-time “retirement job” at Del Mar Showpark in Del Mar, California, as a horse show administrator, Lynette jumped at the opportunity. 

“I’d helped my friend do awards at A shows, and I remember sitting there wondering what it would be like to have a horse like that at a show like that,” she said. “And then, at 65, I was going to my first big show. I was one of those people, with a horse who could show at that level. I couldn’t believe it. Dreams do come true.”