Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Please Reply to: Bruce Weary bweary@xxxxxxxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
==========================================

As someone who knows the Johnson family very well, I thought
I might add a few thoughts and observations about the recent
loss of their rare companion, Jazz. My wife and I were at 
the Old Pueblo ride, and in fact were riding just a few minutes
behind the Johnsons. My new mare had become a handful and had 
just run away with me for about a mile, scaring my wife to death.
I was in no real danger, but she was in tears when she finally
caught up to me. Then, not more than a half mile later, we came
upon the sad scene of Brent and Cheryl, their daughter Julianne,
and friend Charlotte, stunned and grieving over Jazz, lying
peacefully on the side of the road leading to the vet check,a few hundred yards 
away. We stopped to see if we could be of any 
help, and my wife Dayna, who always had a special affection for 
that horse, collapsed emotionally. Not so much for her own grief,
but because she loves her own horse so much, she felt their pain.
Dayna lingered there, and I took our horses on to the vet check.
We debated whether to quit for the day, but Dayna concluded that
to quit would be dishonoring to Jazz. He lived for the trail.
   In a sport where most of us are trying to preserve every spare ounce of 
energy in our horses, Jazz was endowed with
auxiliary fuel tanks. Brent would usually have to ride him for a few miles the 
night before a ride, to remove some of his excess energy,just to make it a fair 
fight for the rest of us the next day. This horse carried every one of the 
Johnsons to various
levels of enviable success. It mattered not how much weight he carried,  
the temperature or the terrain, he was always a force on the
trail. When he finished out of the top ten, it was because
his rider was having mercy on the rest of us, not due to any 
shortfall on Jazz's part. 
  Dayna's horse, Cairo, has nearly 3,000 miles, a 95% completion 
rate, and has finished Tevis. But on the day of Jazz's departure, 
she said the best ride she's ever had was an afternoon training
ride on Jazz. In fact she used to say to me "Honey, you know I
love the Johnson's, but if anything should ever happen to them,
can I have Jazz?"
  Thankfully, this is one horse death that need not be debated
over by those who were not present or otherwise not in the know.
It was just Jazz's time to go, and not related to how he was being ridden, 
which was conservatively on a very cool overcast day. The appropriate questions 
will be asked and answered by
the people appointed to do so. The rest of us need only direct
our thoughts toward compassion for the Johnson family, and 
gratitude that we, at least today, don't have to abide
that empty halter hanging on the barn wall.
   Bruce  Weary
  


=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=