
Cow Trails for People: What Happens When a Ranch Girl Moves to the City with Lyndsey Garber
You can take the girl off of the ranch, but you can’t take the cow trails out of her metaphors. When Lindsay shared that the first time her son stepped onto a sidewalk he called it a “cow trail for people,” we knew we were in for a good one. This episode isn’t about slowing down or speeding up, but finding your footing when everything familiar shifts. From feed store counters to city sirens, we’re unpacking what happens when convenience meets capacity, and why your best practices still apply … even when your groceries can be delivered to your doorstep.
This week we welcome Lindsay Garber, formerly a top-tier ranch wedding photographer, and now the fourth-generation force inside her family’s western wear & feed store in Albuquerque. She’s traded gravel roads for Trader Joe’s, but what grounds her is the same: purpose, people, and a love for the culture that raised her.
Together we explore why leaving town won’t fix a life that’s running on fumes, and why the basics still matter whether groceries are a seven-hour round trip or seven minute away. We talk about context over tactics, conversation as a catalyst, and how retail has its own seasonality: chickens, rodeo, fairs, film crews, and yes, the surprise delight of French cowboys.
Through it all runs a throughline we live by at Cowgirls Over Coffee: when the landscape shifts, your practice (water, sleep, vegetables, reflection, and real connection!) keeps you steady.
Listen In For …
- Why swapping ranch life for city life changes the scenery but not the work of caring for your capacity.
- How conversation functions like binoculars, giving you context so you can actually see what’s coming.
- A practical reminder that the “next level” still runs on the same basics: sleep, hydration, nourishment, and honest check-ins.
- The difference between exhaustion on the ranch and monotony in town, and how to break both with intentional moments of awe.
- What retail teaches about seasons (spring chicks to fall fairs to pilot season) and how to plan without losing presence.
- The store as tether: how tending a legacy space can anchor identity and community in the middle of a metro.
- Why mastering yourself outperforms mastering the hustle, especially when opportunities arrive faster because you planned well.
- A gentle reframe for over-capable women: you don’t need a 12-step overhaul; you need faithful follow-through on what already works.
TL;DR (Minute by Minute)
- 04:30 Lindsay’s move: from “most rural” New Mexico to the heart of Albuquerque; what changed and what didn’t.
- 09:40 Context over geography: leaving town won’t solve capacity problems without deliberate practices.
- 15:20 Conversation as a tool: the “binoculars” for seeing the ship; tactics make sense once you have context.
- 21:35 City monotony vs. ranch exhaustion: different drains with the same antidote: intentional rest and wonder.
- 27:10 Retail seasons 101: chickens, rodeo, fairs, film crews … and the unexpectedly punchy French cowboys.
- 32:45 Legacy as anchor: keeping a 75-year family business human in a humming city.
- 38:50 The faithful basics: water, sleep, vegetables, and how simple habits power real next-level growth.
- 43:30 Wrap-up + invitation to carry the conversation forward.
Where to Go From Here
- Join the conversation: What did this conversation remind you to tend? Your routine, your rest, your roots? Screenshot and tag @cowgirlsovercoffee and keep the conversation going.
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