ORANGE, Va. -- The late Marion duPont Scott loved steeplechase racing so much that she started her own annual competition, held here every November on the grounds of Montpelier, her former estate and the former home of President James Madison.

She also fell in love with Carroll K. Bassett, the handsome jockey and talented sculptor who trained her prize-winning horses and was inducted into the Official National Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame in 1972.

Mr. Bassett's career as a steeplechase jockey peaked in the 1930s while he lived in a home built for him at Montpelier. He managed Mrs. Scott's stables and also trained Battleship, the first American-bred horse to win the Grand National at Aintree, England, in 1938.

In addition to their love of horses, the longtime companions collaborated on a Japanese garden just outside Mr. Bassett's home in the late 1930s. After many truckloads of brush had been cleared, the pair began hunting for large flat stones to use in the garden during their rides on the estate's grounds. The stones became paths around two large ponds and a series of smaller ponds.

"One big job we still have to do is improve the water system and use recycled water. In the past, it was a one-way system that ran out into the lawn," said Sandy Mudrinich, horticulturist at Montpelier.

Unlike the main estate garden, this one is not yet open to tourists. Lots of work remains.

"The original paths were nothing but stepping stones. They were not always at the same height. Some of them were turned. It made walking a little precarious," Ms. Mudrinich said.

To increase safety, some stones were replaced with crushed redstone and the paths were widened. Restorationists have also installed mahogany versions of the original benches, which were made of cedar and redwood.

Among the Japanese garden's stand-out specimens is a 40-foot umbrella pine that is native to central and southwest Japan. Several Canada hemlocks, one weeping, also catch visitors' eyes.

"Mrs. Scott and Mr. Bassett loved fancy birds, and so he built a bird house for the bantam roosters and fan tail pigeons at the edge of the garden," Ms. Mudrinich said, adding that the finial atop the bird house is a replica of Mrs. Scott's bedpost.

When Mr. Bassett died in 1972, he was buried inside the garden fence. Later, his remains were exhumed and reburied next to Mrs. Scott in Gordonsville Cemetery.