#62: breaking wild horses
the invigoration that comes from uncovering a new area of curiosity
Above is an audio recording of me reading this post for those who prefer listening. Thank you for being here! And thank you, Philipp Kaspar, for the intro music.
Places and experiences inform your curiosity. I went horseback riding over the weekend with my cousin, Ruby. We were initially signed up for a level 1 class but changed to level 4 so we could “lope” - a new word to us. Loping = cantering. Our lack of knowledge of that vernacular points to the limited experience we have riding, especially Western, but we went for it anyways.
It was a 2+ hour ride through the mountains of Wyoming and it was breathtakingly beautiful. Something about being on an object in motion (in a car, on an ATV, on a plane, etc) makes neurons fire differently. I am sure there is science to back this (or challenge it) but anecdotally, there is no better and clearer thinking space than when you are out, moving through the world on or in an object.
As we rode through the changing landscapes, I felt a sense of tranquility that can only be experienced when you’re suspended from reality for that long. I knew we had a long ride ahead of us and because horseback riding is novel to me, my concept of time went out the door. It was just me, my horse, Ruby, our instructor who we will call Milly, and the zillions of grasshoppers clapping their wings in the bushes.
The air was dry and thin. My shoulders were warmed by the sun. My hips ached from being turned out by the saddle. Milly was chatty. We talked about a lot of different subjects, many of which were circumstantial to the environment that we were in and the activity that we were doing.
We talked a lot about breaking wild horses. I had personally not heard of the word “breaking” before in reference to training a wild horse to accept human control such as being saddled and ridden. Milly told us of a documentary and show that she watched about taming horses, one of which was a challenge show where contestants raced to capture and break horses within 100 days. We talked about horse psychology and how that is even possible.
My world felt open. I felt curious and alive. I was reminded of how good it feels to unveil new areas of interest. Had I been in my apartment, working on my laptop, taking a break to go to the gym or make a meal, and seeing close family and friends, there is not a world in which I would find myself intrigued by taming wild horses. But in this context, not only was I curious, I was invigorated by the feeling of discovering a new piece of information that was interesting to me.
Once you scratch the surface of a new interest, the whole world opens with new information. I don’t mean to suggest that I now am fixated on taming wild horses.
I just was reminded of how good it feels to be exposed to something novel that gets you out of your all too familiar thought loops and makes you excited to learn something new, to consume new content, to find new shows, books, podcasts, etc. because all of the sudden you have questions you want to answer.
Later, we were driving back to Denver from Wyoming and John and I were reminded of someone we know who’s our age that sold a company for over a billion dollars. Soon after, he ended up in the pits of depression. That happens. When a dream is satiated and your basic needs are guaranteed for a lifetime and then some, it can be hard to find the motivation to learn new things. Part of the joy of learning new information is not knowing where it will lead. The serendipity that stems from being exposed to new ideas is another massive part of the joy of learning. But when you are no longer dreaming of what else you may get to experience in life, it can make these new curiosities fall flat.
Because we are a goal-oriented species, it can be easy to forget that the acquisition of new information and uncertainty about where it will lead is integral to our happiness, almost more so than the attainment of success or any final outcome.
I felt a similar insatiable curiosity again recently after reading a few Emily Henry books that I loved, which led me to study Norah Ephron,1 Dolly Alderton,2 and a whole other slew of authors who had a similar way with storytelling. I cracked into a new interest in a particular type of fiction and it led me to stockpile my YouTube with author interviews, my Spotify with podcasts, my kindle with books, and my Substack with new articles. There is no greater feeling than falling down this type of rabbit hole and having a renewed “personal curriculum,” to borrow language from the lovely watercolor artist, Anna-Laura’s, IG story the other day in which she asked: “what’s in your personal curriculum right now?” I adore this question.
So as we continued riding and I felt the dopamine of learning something new that made me want to continue learning, I was reminded of the importance of not only changing scenery but also trying new activities that may jog areas of interest that would otherwise lay dormant.
There are things we know. There are things we don’t know. And there are things we don’t even know that we don’t know. Those are where the opportunities for life-giving excitement lie. We go through seasons of desiring different amounts of novelty and depth, both of which are good. But I hope this serves as a reminder that when you try something new, really new, you may be surprised by the deep sense of invigoration that it may bring.
That’s all for today!
Thank you for getting Caught Up in Char’s Web with me this week. Catch you here again soon.
With love,
Charlotte
Char’s Web Song of the Week
All past issues of Char’s Web are available for reading here. A few samples below…
#1: A first of many.
#53: spend your time chips wisely
#56: do it for yourself
#58: permission to reinvent yourself
#59: there is no distance
Life Stories. (n.d.). Nora Ephron interview: On writing novels, screenwriting success, and directing [Video]. YouTube.
Love Stories with Stanley Tucci by Dolly Alderton
You are so cute on the back of that horse. And I LOVE this - curiosity has been coming up a lot for me on my roadtrip. I keep journaling about how I want to maintain that curiosity and follow the inkling towards it rather than doing what I think I should or what I have habituated doing in the past.