Monday Musings: Gardener vs Architect

I listened to a podcast where an author was interviewed. The author quoted George R.R. Martin who said there were two types of writers: architects or gardeners. Architects outline and plan every single step of the plot ahead of time. By contrast, gardeners allow the story to take on a life of its own and cultivate the best garden that they can from what is growing. I, of course, immediately started thinking about how this translates to horses. 

I have identified as an eventer ever since I started riding with some seriousness (ie shows, lessons) again after finishing school. But in reality, my day to day rides are basically the same as what I've been doing since I was a teenager: some flat work, some jumping, and a healthy dose of trail riding. And really, Zinger, my first heart horse that I had from the time I was 15 to the time I was 30, was a lot like Butterball in his enjoyment of those various activities. When I first made that comparison, Ryan corrected that Zinger was regal in a way that pony pants himself is not. But they both LOVE getting out on the trails and exploring. Zing and I would wander for hours. In his older years, I would let him dictate the pace and direction. We would walk for 15 minutes sometimes and an hour plus other days. He was also an incredible athlete and had way more jumping talent than I ever used. I used to regret having him during a time in my life where I didn't have the resources I have now to lesson and travel and show. But he was given to my trainer's daughter by an Ocala UL eventer because he had injured a hind suspensory and needed rehab. We did that rehab, and he was very sound the whole time I had him, but probably wouldn't have been sound if we had pushed him harder. So really, he was with me at the perfect time in my life and his life as well. 

Zing out cross country

Pony Club SJ rally 

In my dad's backyard 

Beach pony 

Trail pony extraordinaire 

Winning our BN division at the horse park when he was 22

Playing XC in a field many, many years ago that is now a housing development about 20 minutes from where I currently live 

And Zing honestly set the bar so high that until Butterball, every other horse has failed to measure up in one way or another. Since I started blogging my equine life, I've owned three horses. Yoshi unfortunately could not stay sound enough to jump. And I wanted to jump, so I found him a fantastic flatwork home. Retrospectively, Ben would have been sounder as a flatwork horse in a manicured ring. Or maybe even a jumping horse in a manicured ring. However, his prior/current owner did retire him from manicured ring hunter life because she thought it was too stressful for him and contributing to his ulcers. He did enjoy jumping though. What he did not enjoy was trail riding. He did it solo if I asked because he was a GOOD BOY, but it was not fun. You could basically feel him internally panicking the whole time. He was pretty happy to go out with friends on the trails and drew from their bravery. So I did shape my rides to reflect that. We either ponied him off his BFF or just went with friends. Had I been more of the gardener mentality with him, we would have moved to non-competitive dressage and jumping in an arena with very little travel. 

Goggles potentially could have been the ultimate trifecta for me, he showed a lot of promise on enjoying trail rides. But his management needs along with size made him not a great fit. I couldn't garden those things into anything manageable without having my own place to tailor to him.

So in reality, I think I am closer to the architect side of things. Honestly until the fourth (or so, I didn't go back to count; there are things I love looking back on, but this is not one of them, surprise) time that Ben went lame due to sore feet, it didn't occur to me to look at a different path with him. But in contrast, and maybe this is just some semblance of maturity developing in myself, if Butterball says at a certain point that he doesn't want to play over bigger cross country fences or that the dressage work is getting to be too much pressure mentally, then I would change my goals and routine with him to suit that (with the obvious requisite vet check to make sure there was nothing to address physically). I would gladly continue to event at novice with him for the next 15 years. 

My base requirement moving forward is something that enjoys being out of the ring. Not necessarily from the first venture out, I was willing to help shape Goggles enjoyment in baby steps, but not starting with a horse like Ben who is absolutely never going to give up all of his anxieties to solo hack out. I LOVE the way Butterball's brain processes things. He is not without some spookiness for sure, but give him a few minutes to ponder and examine and some cookies for encouragement and he decides things aren't so bad. And then he REMEMBERS (no offense Ben, but positive reinforcement conditioning to the same jump panel that lived in the same spot forever and ever did get old). 

Some of this comes back to heart horses I think. The horse that you won't move on from no matter what. The ones that encourage "gardening" to grow something beautiful.