Many people have asked me about Jazz since I said good-bye to him in August. (Read Saying good-bye to Jazz.) I’ve repeatedly said, I have no idea! Of course I was fairly certain Rachel would enter him in a ride soon, but I wasn’t competing. And I knew he’d be most likely to compete in northern California or Nevada. But my life has been far too busy for me to make a serious effort to find out what he was doing.
Jump to:
Recognizing Jazz’s particular walk
A temporary disappointment
Jazaari FA is now “Maverick”
Discovering what’s up with Jazz… by accident
By pure luck, I happened upon Jazz News Saturday morning. I had driven my dad up to Redding for his 59th high school reunion on September 16th. The reunion was held in the Win-River Casino, so we stayed there. Sign-in started at 10am. My dad has never been a morning person, and he’s slower than ever now. I got him going at 7:30, and then waited. And waited.
I scrolled Facebook more than I had for months. I ended up watching a video of the start of a 100-mile endurnace ride… with envy!
Imagine my surprise when I recognized Jazz’s unique sideways walk!
Endurance friends were posting about the Virginia City 100 mile ride that had started that same morning. Now, I had been (ignorantly) under the impression that the VC 100 happened in Virginia for a long time. At some point, I realized that it was in Nevada…. still, I didn’t imagine Jazz would be entered in it. I had planned to do the 100 at 20-Mule Team next February with him. Not that I didn’t think he could do it. I know he could have done Tevis this year, I was just being conservative when I decided to wait till next summer.
Still, it caught me by surprise to see Jazz at the end of the video of the start. You can see him in the last seconds of the video below. (I’ve extracted the section at the end; it’s below if you prefer not to wade through the entire Facebook video.)
Above: You can see Jazz walking beside a grey horse at the end of the video. I wouldn’t have recognized Rachel, but someone greets her–“Shackelfords”–so even if I hadn’t been 99.99% sure she would be riding Jazz, I knew it then.
In case you’re wondering how I could recognize him in such a dark video… well, have a look at the video below. He has a very distintive gait. Besides, I rode him hundreds of miles, and watched him many!
Above: Jazz showing his distinctive slightly twisted walk!
I was very excited to know he was doing 100 miles. If he finished–and I was certain he could–I’d know that I’d done a good job. Training and conditioning a horse is not complete until you know that another person can be successful with it.
Then came the (temporary) disappointment…
I was too busy with my dad to follow the race, but the next day I searched Facebook for the results. I scanned for Jazaari FA… and found nothing. He must have been pulled, I thought. And I started wondering what could have gone wrong, of course! Had I been wrong about his fitness? Had I been too right not to do Tevis this year?
I set it aside and focused on getting my dad home safely. It was only the next morning while waiting for my students to come in that I scanned the results (below) more carefully. I was looking for the pulls… and then I noticed that Rachel Shackelford was amongst the finishers, in 19th place– Yay Jazz!
Wait… Yay Maverick!
Above: If you look at the image of the results, you can see that Rachel’s horse is named “Maverick.” Yep, Jazz has been rebranded.
Jazaari FA is now “Maverick” in the endurance world
On the track, you cannot rename a horse without including the old name (because betting). But in endurance I know it’s done. I wouldn’t. As the daughter of a horse breeder, I’d never want to change the registered name. I’ve even kept my new mare’s stable name! But I will register her with AERC as RB Rich Rath.
Above: It looks like Rachel has re-registered Jazz with a different AERC number. Clearly Rachel had her reasons. But I do hope they will add the 445 miles he completed with me to his total though! He deserves it 🙂
The important thing is that Jazz (ok Maverick) has done me proud. I’m so happy he’s completed his first 100-mile race, and in 19 hours no less. Not bad for a horse that came to me 17 months ago and acted like he’d never seen a saddle! (But he’s a faker. Rachel had done a good job of starting him. Read about Jazz’s first five days.)
I’ll probably not have the time to post about Jazz again, but I’ll know how to find him. Every race he completes will make me proud 🙂 Now you all know to keep an eye out for the new 100-mile horse, Maverick. Let me know how he does!
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