IN SEARCH OF THE COWGIRL SPIRIT

Welcome to Women Honoring the West 2025!

I’m thrilled to start the year with my Women Writing the West sister writer Josephine (Jeanie) Young. She’s filled with the Cowgirl Spirit, joy, smiles, and blesses everyone around her.

Let’s giddy up and meet Josephine!

What is the cowgirl spirit, and why am I in search of it?

In my view, the spirit of the cowgirl is an attitude. It is an internal posture toward the outside world. Toward risk. Toward challenge. Toward difficulty.

It’s independence.

It’s something inside of a feminine spirit. It’s rising up in the face of the unknown and grasping opportunity. It’s refusing to give up even when the odds are against you. It’s shouldering burdens that belong to you instead of expecting someone else to take them. It’s knowing you can take care of yourself – and being capable of it – but at the same time being just vulnerable enough to let someone else take care of you sometimes, too.

The cowgirl spirit is about having an inner knowing that you’ve got something to offer the world – something unique, and something you’re not afraid to offer. It’s being able to stack up in a man’s world just fine – fully embracing femininity without hiding it or flaunting it.

It’s every woman.

It’s about understanding and knowing our true strength, and where it lies. It’s identification with the heart.

For me, it meant being strong enough to find my way through the quagmire when I became a single mother. It meant I didn’t seek or expect handouts. I found a way to put my daughter first. I reached down inside myself and found what I needed to survive – even when I didn’t think it was there. I acted as if it was already there, and then I found that it was.

It’s why I keep writing my stories.

It’s why I’m always searching for that cowgirl spirit, and why I can’t resist celebrating it when and where I find it.

I’d like to share with you some examples of women who embody the cowgirl spirit – and not just a smidgen or a touch of cowgirl spirit, but an abundance of cowgirl spirit that overflows and inspires and gives life.

There’s the indomitable Kittie, the heroine of my novel. A real person, she took her femininity right into the heart of a man’s world in the nineteenth century without a bit of trepidation. She was a horse breeder – a businesswoman. And a pianist. And she could ride anything with four legs, side saddle, so the story goes, and gained the respect of a string of buckaroos who called her boss.

And then there’s Susie, a modern-day Kittie, a woman who thinks nothing of stepping out into the night to help a mare birth a foal. She breeds top-notch racing quarter horses. She hand breeds her mares to her powerful, prancing stallions. By herself. On a ranchette in a canyon with high rock walls, where the moon glows overhead and the stars glitter, unabated by city lights, on the cold, clear Colorado nights.

And Caroline, who along with three other volunteers, camped out with the 54 horses belonging to the Biltmore Estate when Hurricane Helene hit. Under her leadership, the crew braved the rising flood waters, determined to see the horses all safely through the raging wind and rain. Blocked from the outside world, she didn’t give up until she found a way to get fresh water to the horses each day.

And Starla, who built a fence with her own two hands for her beloved gelding, Pepe, a rescue horse who now rescues children scarred by trauma. She’s a licensed counselor who uses horses to rebuild wounded people, some who have been trafficked and trampled on. Her passion to help people recover their hearts empowers her to move mountains. She never gives in to the notion something can’t be done. She just does it.

And Susan, who believed so fiercely in the qualities of the ancient Spanish barb horse that she devoted her life to painstakingly breeding for the original traits and even patented her own breed nomenclature: the Iberiano.

And Barbara, who gave up her high-dollar career to reconnect with something she had lost in the process: her joy. And now she shares that same joy and purpose by teaching experiential learning through horses, something that may sound off the beaten path, but has wrought real miracles in real lives.

And Jan, a transplant to the West from Pennsylvania, who was so captivated by the beauty of the New Mexico Ghost Ranch that she was pulled to recreate its beauty in striking pastel artwork.

And Debbie, who left a 19-year career in a veterinary surgery clinic and unleashed her creativity in the new venture of creating and selling leather purses.

And on, and on. I can’t stop looking for it. And finding it. It’s my passion, and maybe my obsession.

The cowgirl spirit fascinates me, and I love telling about it — thanks for coming along for the ride!

What a wonderful explanation of the Cowgirl Spirit.

Who inspired you the most in this story? Drop you answer in the comments.

About Josephine

Jeanie Young is a member of Women Writing the West. She is a two-time finalist of that organization’s LAURA short fiction award (2013 and 2015). Josephine received a degree in agricultural journalism from Kansas State University, grew up on a farm in the Midwest, and loves all things horses, history, and the West.