Horse Roundup 2026 | Editorial: Slowly, then all at once

I’ve always been the type of person that was too busy with my horses to bother with planting a garden. This year, however, I turned over a new leaf. I’m trying my hand (or green thumb?) at growing a vegetable garden for the first time in my life.  

I planted seeds for what I hoped were “easy” plants for a beginner: cucumbers, carrots, squash, peppers. And then I began the couple-week process of waiting. Watering and waiting.  

The more I watched the black dirt, the worse my patience became. It wasn’t until I went away for a weekend and had the neighbor water my plants did some sprouts finally shoot up. I’m a little embarrassed at the excitement I felt over seeing those little green shoots poke up from underground.  

I realized this was the perfect analogy for the process of making horses.  

Oftentimes, progress is little by little, then all at once.  

We have a one-year-old that we weren’t sure we’d ever get tamed down. Despite early attempts to imprint and many offerings of treats, “Bonnie” was stubbornly wild. I never did trust the look in her eye, and she’d rarely lick her lips after minutes of petting. We stayed as consistent as we could with her, and after months of increasingly pleasant interactions, she now walks up to us in the corral amongst the cavvy.  

One of our five-year-olds has had an incredible transformation. When he was three and four, he’d buck when he was fresh or if he didn’t want to leave the other horses during an early morning gather. And he could buck. But we knew there was great potential in that little “seed” of a young horse. Suddenly, he is now the one we catch when we have a tough job to do. Out of nowhere, he became a “good one.” It didn’t happen overnight, but it happened.  

Those breakthroughs with horses are moments worth celebrating. They come in measurable moments, like those named above, but they were won in the tiny little moments of growth that weren’t so noticeable.  

The roots are forming underground, out of sight. The water and sunlight are doing their work, even if one can’t see. Digging up the seedling to see how it’s progressing would be detrimental to progress. One has to have a little bit of faith… and patience. And the growth happens.  

I asked a veteran-gardener relative of mine if he had any advice for my gardening journey. He simply said, “Water helps.”  

Maybe we overcomplicate things.  

Consistent watering with the correct ingredients… that’s all a horse needs.