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Please Reply to: Julianne Johnson jewls@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx or 
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Hi, I'm Julianne Johnson from Tucson, the daughter of Brent and Cheryl Johnson 
from Prescott, AZ.
At the old Pueblo Ride on Sat. March 5, tradgedy struck and our beloved friend, 
partner, and athlete, Jazlum, passed away.
Since many people knew Jazz from rides, not everyone at the ride knew what 
happened, I would like to say a few things and explain what happened as best I 
know.
Jazz, a proud and striking gray arab gelding was 16 when he died,    and was 
our very first and very best endurance horse.  He was loved by the whole 
family, and was my dad and sister's very favorite horse. We had him for about 8 
years. He had 4500 miles, countless top tens, tevis, wins, BC's, 100s, overall 
fastest for pioneer: he was an amazing athlete as well as a wonderful friend.
Before the ride Jazz felt great and was his usual excited but all-business self 
on saturday morning. My dad was having a great ride, and was going at a medium 
pace. A few miles from the first vet check, he stopped for about a half hour to 
help a horse that had cut its leg really bad, and of course Jazz was anxious to 
go on. My dad was walking Jazz into the vet check, and about a half mile away, 
all of the sudden, he started tripping really bad, something Jazz had never 
ever done.  My dad was worried and jumped off, and Jazz fell down off of the 
road, which had steep sides. He was disoriented, maybe blind, but got up and 
ran back up to the road. He fell down, and then died within seconds, with my 
dad stroking him and telling him that he could let it go, and that he was a 
good boy, and that he loved him. From the time he first tripped to his last 
breath was less than a minute.
Five minutes later, my mom and I rode up, and found my poor dad sitting over 
Jazz. My mom and I went into absolute hysteria, screaming and crying in grief, 
utter disbelief, and horror. How could such a thing happen? How could our best 
horse lay down and die? We take good care of our horses-how could this happen? 
My dad was so strong, and comforted us. People were riding by during all of 
this, including many of our friends: we thank them for their compassion.  With 
the help of caring friends and volunteers, Jazz was laid to rest outside of 
Tucson. He will be sorely missed, and was like a member of the family.
After getting the opinion of many different vets, including Sid at the ride and 
Dave Nicolson, the consensus was that Jazz had an anurism, which is 
unpreventable and causes almost instant death. I feel blessed that Jazz died 
doing his favorite thing- endurance, and that at least my dad got to say 
goodbye, and no one was hurt, or had to feel responsible for what happened. We 
thank everyone for their compassion and solace, and if anyone would like to say 
a few words to my dad, my parents email is johnsonfamily17@xxxxxxxxx Jazz - 
we'll never forget you.


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