Tuesdays with Jazzy

The chance to ride seems elusive lately! Whether it be work or school or home life or even barn chores getting in the way, I absolutely relish my three little rides a week right now. The weekends have been crazy lately and this coming weekend will make three in row out of town!

My work schedule rotates as follows, one week I work Mon, Tues, Fri and then next week I work Wed, Thurs, Fri. Back and forth... So my "off" days are filled with errands and chores and grocery shopping etc. but also are my barn days. This past Tuesday I went out to the barn about ten in the morning after getting some house cleaning done- which is torture for me- I don't understand why I would rather clean up horse/chicken poop than fold laundry and I know it doesn't make sense, but anyway, I bribed myself to do housework with the promise of a barn afternoon.

The weather was gorgeous. One of those fall days that literally makes you feel guilty if you spend it inside. When I arrived and rolled down the windows to say hello to the mares as I drove down the driveway, they trotted to the gate to greet me- which makes me feel very special. Jazz is NOT a super affectionate mare. Geldings tend to be more affectionate, and Ember is pretty affectionate as far as mares go, but Jazz distributes her love as only she sees fit. Today she immediately lifted her head at the sound of my voice and trotted to the gate to greet me with Ember following behind- so there my therapy began.

I know I don't have human children, but I absolutely do know how amazing it feels to be loved by another being. The fact that Jazz is rather picky about who she loves and how she shows it makes me feel even more special. When I first got her, I waited MONTHS to hear her nicker at me when I approached her. She still doesn't do it regularly, but her and I have a connection and she has funny ways of whispering her affection.

So I let the mares into the small paddock area around the barn to eat the "good grass" while I cleaned out stalls and tended to the chickens. Both of them immediately headed towards the hay storage because they are lazy and opportunistic and yummy hay is so much easier to eat than actually having to make the effort to graze! Busted...

I let the chickens out and marveled for a moment at how big they are getting. A mere six weeks ago, they were tiny tiny little balls of fuzz that we had to hand feed and now they are big and pretty and full of personality. They have been handled daily since hatching so they are very friendly and anyone who tells you chickens don't have personalities doesn't have chickens! They are quite individual, some are adventurous and some are shy, some are cuddly and some standoffish. Now that they are teenagers, they are testing their wings out and when I let them out they scurry out of the pen and flap and fly a few feet before finding a butterfly to chase or a yummy bug to eat. They also have started following me around- which is cute and also a little annoying. They usually just follow me outside, but today they were following me into the stalls and getting under the wheelbarrow and I even misted a few of them with the water hose- much to their delight it turns out!

We still have to thin our flock and as soon as we know exactly who are roosters, we will have to give them away or sell them- and I am already preparing myself for this. Buddha is def. a rooster- and has a bit of a tude and is literally the ugliest chicken I have EVER seen. He gets uglier by the day! I'm pretty sure Goldilocks is a rooster as well because he practices cocka-doodle-dooing even though no sound comes out. That would leave us with six- which is a pretty reasonable number, so I'm praying those are the only two roosters! See buddha- the ugly one front and center:

Back to Tuesday... after the chickens were out playing and the mares were munching on hay, I went about my chores. Jazz came in her stall for a few minutes to hang out with me and Ember inspected the chickens as always. I groomed Jazz as she ate and was proud that she's getting really good about tolerating all my fussing over her while she eats. She used to spin circles to avoid being brushed but I stopped currying her and she's much more into the grooming now. Grooming a horse is a relaxing process. I know every part of her and it's nice to know that she's ok and healthy and even her funky fungus on her cannon bones is going away. She turned to me and flapped her lips along my shoulder and breathed that big sigh out- which means she's relaxed and happy- as was I. The chickens threatened to come in her stall with us, but no one was brave enough to come in with the big horse for their dust baths. Ember stood outside the barn door softly nickering to Jazz to make sure she wasn't planning on going anywhere. After I finished doing water buckets and shavings and hay and cleaning the chicken pen I decided to ride. I put Jazz in the cross ties and Ember put herself in her stall so I closed her stall guard to keep her in while we rode.

*Disclaimer- Riding alone is not a great idea, let me just throw that out there. I do it often because it's a necessity and I also am very cautious. I wear a helmet, proper boots, gloves etc. EVERY time I ride. I check my tack before and after every ride- it's just second nature. I do it to my friends too and if I ever come ride with you or watch you ride I will check your tack and fix your keepers and probably look at the billets on your saddle- I don't even realize I'm doing it. So I feel fairly confident that I won't faceplant into the pasture due to some tack malfunction. Horses are inherently unpredictable but not inherently mean, and after riding for a long time, especially the same horse, you begin to learn to feel their mood through body language. Horses often give a rider AMPLE warning cues before they act naughty.*

I know Jazz well and I know exactly what she does with her body before she bucks (she shortens her neck and stride and coils her hind end underneath me) and often before she decides to increase our pace (hollows out her neck and stiffens her shoulders). So I feel FAIRLY confident that if she does misbehave, I am capable of handling it. So I ride alone, and even though I wouldn't suggest it, there is something about the feeling of just you and your horse that is peaceful and exhilarating. We birdwatch and I talk to her and she flicks her ears around alerting me to the animals and sights around us that I don't notice like she does. She tends to know my moods and she knew Tuesday that I needed a good gallop. After some trot serpentines and nice canter work from her, she picked up a canter and pricked her ears and said "let's go mom". So I indulged her and just sat in two point and grabbed some mane and let her go- as her back stretches and drops into the gallop, her neck lengthens and those ears are confidently pricked, but still flick back to listen to me. We did a quick lap around the pasture and ended our ride with a long walk. Both of us breathing audibly. I dropped my stirrups and lengthened my reins and just enjoyed the weather and the breeze and the sweet smell of horse and grass and closed my eyes for a minute. As I reached down to pat her neck she headed back to the gate looking forward to dinner and joining Ember in the barn.

I untacked her in the aisle crossties and she stood still without being tied, rubbing her head on me as I walked by asking for a scratch and a treat. I whispered to her that I loved her and thanked her for a great ride and always taking care of me. She put her head on my chest and paused for a moment.

You can't pay for therapy like that. Between the cooing and chirping of happy chickens, and the sights and sounds of the barn, and the feel of a horse galloping beneath you- there just isn't anything better. Even with the tremendous amount of work the barn requires, I always leave there relaxed and refreshed, and thankful for the opportunity to enjoy a simple Tuesday afternoon- picking up poop and riding my horse.

catching up

Wow- what a busy fall! After the fabulous AEC's weekend, it seems like everything has just been a blur of activity! Still waiting on that fall weather though since it's about 86 degrees F outside today, but I did already get out some of the fall decor for the house and do the fall table settings. I need to re-vamp my pumpkin topiary that I made last year as it got damaged in the attic and change the bed linens for fall- but it's still too warm to put up the summer comforter!

Ryan and i have been busy almost every weekend and i have completely forgotten what it's like to sleep past seven a.m.- sometimes being a grown-up is no fun!

The doggies are doing well and I sent a DNA test off in early September to see if we could get a better clue as to Doodle's breed identity. We always said she was lab/weimeraner and boy were we surprised to get the results back! Turns out, she is (in order of greatest to least percentage): Labrador, Rottweiler, Mastiff, Greyhound! She of course just looks like a ginormous lab with a super long and powerful tail that we have nicknamed the "weapon of mass destruction". That tail is responsible for a myriad of broken glasses and candles and the reason I didn't even bother to get a coffee table for years! Finally, a dear friend from Savannah who was redoing her house showed us a coffee table she was getting rid of and we brought it back to the house where it looks great! I used the last of our Pottery Barn store credits (still had them left over from the wedding!) and got a great wrought iron candle holder that has proven to be "tail proof" since it's so heavy! I tell you what- toddlers have nothing in the destructive department when matched against Doodle and Rylie Boo! Our house is super dog proof now and pretty much everything we own is anchored into place somehow. It's funny to think about how many of my interior design decisions are based on the four-legged children! I think I could seriously host a show on HGTV about pet friendly and safe interior design for those of us that refuse to make our houses LOOK like dogs live there.

I planted the outside garden for fall and decided to do deep purple and white pansies against flowering kale- the green leaves with the purple veins. Ordinarily I plant based on what is indigenous, drought hardy and edible, but I cheated a little this year since the pansies aren't indigenous. The kale is edible, although too pretty to eat and the pansies are cold hardy and look pretty on a salad plate- so I let them in the garden. Plus- they are cheap and easy and I was going for effortless this year. Rylie Boo subsequently dug up most of the pansies while I was on the phone the other day and after threatening her with euthanasia, i planted them again and all but one seems to be ok.

It's almost time to bring all the succulents in my container garden in for the winter which is a huge pain, but some of them have gotten really big and pretty over the summer and I HATE to see them get cold and mushy in winter and lose them. I have a ton of extras right now because the pots are literally overflowing so if anyone wants to start a succulent garden- let me know and I will send some starters! They are really fun to grow! My herb garden has gone by the wayside except for the cilantro and lemon thyme. The basil kicked the bucket early this year with some sort of brown creeping wilty disease and the yellow tomatoes got too wet and the roots rotted which was sad because I was looking forward to those!
Oh well, I've learned for next year!

As far as the biggest member of the four-legged family is concerned. She is doing well. She could be doing fabulously, except for that she has gotten more time off than I care to admit lately. School is very much demanding this semester since Anatomy II is basically insane and my family violence class is requiring lots of research and paper writing. If there were a degree in procrastination, I would have a PHD, so waiting until the last minute to do everything like blogging for example, overwhelms me a bit lately and then I spend about four nights in a row playing catch up and getting no sleep! Awesome right? What good habits!

Back to Jazz, when i do get to ride her, she is amazing and forgiving of my inconsistent schedule. We did a hunter pace recently down at Bear Creek Farm in Moreland, Ga and she was great. The next week we schooled cross country and Chattahoochee Hills and that was lots of fun. She made her disdain for one particular jump abundantly clear, but thanks to my lovely trainer, she changed her mind later! She is great in water and off/on banks. She also doesn't mind ditches, although I didn't find one that doesn't seem too imposing at Chatt Hills- she schooled the Poplar Place Farm one with no issue. As far as flat work goes, we are looking for a dressage trainer. We miss our old one very much but he won't make the trek to the new barn and since we have no trailer- alas we are stuck there. There is a trainer close by which might work out, I just haven't had the time to go watch her teach/ride and after all the crazies I have met in the past, I am wary of anyone new before I check them out! Canter work is our main priority right now. We had a few weeks where she started 'rooting' at me in transitions and when I wanted a stronger contact and she was also missing her leads- which was strange. So I had her teeth looked at and floated and voila! the rooting went away overnight. There's no telling when the last time she had dental work was- on the track maybe? She tolerated it but OMG she makes the most human faces sometimes and was very clear that she was "over" having someone stick their entire arm and a rasp in her mouth! Her little attitude is hilarious though and something I appreciate about her even though it's sometimes tough to deal with. She is VERY, let me say, expressive and even though her self expression is sometimes totally naughty, it's clear that this mare is intelligent and athletic and that, to me, is priceless.

Outside of husband and our little four-legged children family there have been some interesting developments! My talented brother who was executive chef at a little place called Ziba's- had a large disagreement with the super flaky/sketchy/unprofessional owner and left. I am proud of him for sticking to his beliefs and refusing to cook crap food for no money so he immediately got snatched up by the folks over at CRAFT on Peachtree. CRAFT is a Tom Collichio restaurant so I imagine he's learning a ton about the industry there. He is working with another chef at the grill at CRAFTBAR downstairs (the upstairs is more formal) and he is turning out some great dishes and covering as many tables as the upstairs where there are 8 chefs on the line. Go Landon!
We went the other night and he sent us some delectable fried quail as a starter. The skin was perfectly crisp and there was almost a sweetness and smokiness to it along with that salty crunch of the breading. Then we had my favorite- roasted brussels sprouts with bacon and some conglomeration of herbs I couldn't identify. The pork belly dish is sinful and delicious and although I would never order it at a table full of women who will pretend that it's all fat and they just. cant. eat it... it's mouthwatering. Then he sent sweetbreads from the upstairs menu and although I have enjoyed them before when they were fried, the texture and prep on these was more than I could handle since we had just finished studying all the functions of the thymus in anatomy. It's just hard to eat something you've dissected in lab class! Mom got the foie gras, and although still a organ meat, that one I could handle! It came with apples and so I got a bit of the foie and bit of the apple and added a bite of the brussels sprouts and I was set. It was awesome.
As if the scenery on my table wasn't delicious enough, in walks Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman with his cute wife and little girl and I was honestly a bit starstruck. I am not a celebrity obsessed twenty something at all and the likes of popsugar and perezhilton don't do much to keep my attention- unless Lindsay Lohan gets arrested- because that's hilarious, but let me tell you what, I have always had a thing for Ryan Reynolds and he is even better looking in person! What a lucky woman Charlize Theron is! If I had consumed about two more glasses of champagne he might have gotten a hug! But since I have always had ZERO ability to flirt and often become speechless in the presence of those I find extraordinarily attractive, (you should have seen me try to muster out a hello to William Fox-Pitt) I sat quietly at my table and just stared at him like a total creepster! Luckily for me, he couldn't see me looking at him! Again, I'm proud of Landon for turning out food that movie stars who are in town will come to eat twice in one week!

Mom is currently on crutches with a broken ankle and just got rid of her hot pink cast. She fell off her wedge flip-flop and subsequently the "circle of trust" which is what we call the brick patio at their house trying to play with her dog (Remy- the standard poodle) so she has been hobbling around for weeks now. They are building an addition on the house too and trying to pack it up while she's on crutches so things are crazy at home. I drove in last weekend to find a red clay hole that a Tahoe could fit in at the front of the house and then was greeted by Bella (moms Cavapoo) who was dyed the color of red clay- so I can only imagine how she came to be that color and how much fun it is to watch a clay covered dog run into the house when you are stuck on crutches and can't catch her before she tracks in mud and leaves all over the place. An old friend aptly nicknamed my parents Bob and Martha as in Bob Vila and Martha Stewart and mom especially lives up to that stereotype. Sometimes she even makes Martha Stewart look lazy and laid back so being on crutches and not in control of her domain is bound to be stressful! I LOVE my mother more than anything in this world and if you ever need something done quickly, efficiently, beautifully and correctly- she is your woman. But I think I would rather climb mount everest in a bikini than be nurse/organizer/packer/dog wrangler (which is what dad is doing) to my mom- cuz she runs a tight ship! She has even taught herself to drive left-footed which is scary, but further explains her inability to keep still!

So that about wraps up the last two months- oh- except for that my beloved Volkswagen CC is no more. I didn't need the sports car speed and I do need cargo room! The CC could only fit about 4 bags of Seminole horse feed in the back seat and two bags of Equine Pine in the trunk and Ryan threatened to kill me if I tried to put hay in there- so I gave it up. I was going to get a truck and had been dreaming of white F-150's with matching white horse trailers in tow, but man- trucks are more expensive than I'd bargained for, so I got a very useful white Ford Edge- which is a little SUV. I am going to wait a few years for the truck and hope that maybe Ryan will get one instead so I don't have to drive it every day. I drive a TON of miles a week so I need something more fuel efficient than a truck- unless of course I can charm some Saudi Prince with an oil well and preferably a Thoroughbred breeding farm into giving me rights to them both.
That plan seems unlikely at best so the Edge will do just fine for now!

Now- for a little fashion pet peeve. OK- I know the equestrian look is in and everyone everywhere is shimmying their legs- whether twiggy or cankle-y into a pair of riding boot look-a-likes. Now those of you who know me well, know that I used to be a faithful disciple of J.Crew but have fallen off the back of their antique Range Rover complete with handmade pic-nic set since they have apparently forgotten the value of the PB&J and switched to a caviar only diet. I'm just plain MAD that the quality and tailoring of their clothes/shoes/jewelry has become truly laughable, while their prices have almost tripled on everything they sell. The first strike for me, was when their jeans started falling apart after one season of regular wear and the sizing became inconsistent, the second strike was when I bought my second pair of their suede driving mocs and the sole fell OFF after I stepped in a puddle with them on, the third strike was today and let me tell you it's a big one! I was surfing for boots when a picture of some Aigle jumping boots with brown tops popped up. J.CREW is selling Aigle jumping boots as fashion boots which is funny because they are hideously uncomfortable but then I noticed they were marketing brown topped boots to women! What?!! Women DO NOT wear brown topped boots. Men wear them! Women ONLY wear them as part of a hunt staff uniform and even that is rare since women traditionally wear patent topped boots. So Dear J.CREW, before you decide to try to steal something that is equestrian looking for the sake of fashion- please do your research. Maybe the fact that those boots only really come in men's sizes when you order them from Aigle is a clue?
Honestly, I'm sure some innocent little fashionista is purchasing these- and when she sports them with her outfit for steeplechase- everyone is going to make fun of her. Well at least everyone who has any clue about horses is going to laugh at her because wearing those boots is about as appropriate as a man wearing a bounce minimizing sports bra during a a sand volleyball game.

Cheers for fall and cooler weather and appropriate steeplechase footwear! E.