Homecoming

Jazz came home from her last lessor. She still had another couple months left on her lease, but LL's husband got laid off and hasn't been able to find another job for almost 5 months so she couldn't afford to keep Jazz which was a bummer. She came down on Monday to drop her off. Jazz was SO excited to be home, she power walked down to the barn almost dragging LL and once in the pasture trotted and cantered around whinnying... she was looking for Grady and it made my heart hurt. He has always been there at home waiting for her, no matter how long she was away - for the weekend or for the school year being boarded - he never went anywhere. They were best buds, Grady was the only horse Jazz really got along with. When my mom got home later that day and heard Jazz whinnying she commented that she must be looking for Grady and we both almost started crying. It's really hard for him to not be there.

LL also teared up when she had to leave. Her and Jazz got along so well, it's sad that she couldn't keep her for longer. So it was kind of a soggy day.

Riding around the pasture yesterday

Tuesday I rode Jazz in the morning. She felt awesome! Had to kind of get her out of the western horse mind frame back into dressage horse mode, but by the end she had a lovely trot going on and we had a little bit of a gallop. Boy is it nice to ride a finished trained horse again. I was nervous about Jazz being home because I didn't really know what shape she'd be in, turns out she's a lot better than I expected. She doesn't feel creaky, stiff or sore in any way! She turned 23 this year so I was worrying about whether she'd have arthritis. She's really lacking muscle in her back and hindquarters which isn't too surprising knowing that she was allowed to dink around on a loose rein and carry herself on her forehand, and she does need to gain a little bit of weight in addition to all that muscle. Her feet look good and the nice thing about where she was living was that there were no gnats so she doesn't have any sores due to her sweet itch. At least for the moment.

Playing around in the double bridle last summer. Such an awesome mare!

Not really sure what I'm going to do with Jazz. I think she's definitely still up to be in work so I could find her another lessor. I would love to find someone who'd offer her a forever home so once she got too old to be ridden she could just hang out in the pasture and be loved on. I think the perfect situation would be for someone who wants a solid trail horse and then their kids/grandkids could climb all over her/love on her/learn to ride on her when she's "retired". Or she could retire at home, though honestly I don't know if my parents are up to taking on another horse after Grady. Or I could find pasture board close to my barn up at school (very rare to find something that's year round) and use Jazz as a lesson horse/friends horse. I don't know though... Hopefully something will come up that will magically be perfect :)