We were just at a post-show/make-shift/bonfire/tail-gate.  Bring a dish, bring a chair, sit and talk.

Talk about horses, talk about life, talk about hay, and the rain, and the heat.  Talk about hounds, talk about trucks & their engines & the repairs & the tires.  And oh, talk about the horses again.

Talk about new Hunt horses, old Hunt horses, mustangs, and falls from horses, bits, and bail-outs (and I’m not talking corporate).

All Hunt horses are great.  Even the calculating, sly ones.

~~~Jezebel~~~Let’s begin with Jezebel~~~

This blog could be filled with volumes & tomes of a great, great many Hunt horses complete with quirks and foibles.  Always quirks and foibles.  Who wants to Hunt a boring/predictable ride?  (I do.)

That’s why I’m starting with Jezebel.  Good alias, huh?  Her real name is equally descriptive.

Since I’ve started back into stained glass, I’ve started focusing on horse portraits of different Hunt horses who I’ve liked.   Currently I’m working on Dee Dee, but when I’m finished with her, then I’ll start on Jezebel

……………………Dee Dee was a leopard appaloosa and a great, great Hunt horse & lesson horse.  She started so many people off in the Hunt.  She was perfect for beginner Hunters in the field while at the same time she was a docile, kind mount for Mary Constance’s grandchildren……………………..She will be missed…………………But try to find leopard appaloosa in art glass!!!

But, oh Gee, I digress.  Back to Jezebel.

I think the first few times I met Jezebel and her rider Lola, I could really only see the bottoms of her boots (Lola’s) and Jezebel’s girth & belly.  I never saw their faces.

Any time I would look around I would see Jezebel’s stomach (a gorgeous gray) as she was hedging her way backwards on hind feet into palmettos or trees or bushes, or trailers, or just down the road and back again.

Just last year at Opening Hunt Meet, Jezebel untied herself from the side of her trailer and was galloping around all of the parked horse trailers————–lead rope and tail flying in the air.  Tra!  La!

It was all hands on deck because the field backed up onto a railroad track and we didn’t know the next train schedule or what the gravel or railroad ties would do to her feetsies………………………she finally deigned to be caught, when her favorite gelding buddy was walked out towards her and she docilely followed him back to her trailer……………………….ah, Jezebel.  A pony with a tood (as in at-ti-tood).

Jezebel’s ready to be incarnated as a bi-ped (albeit, I am sure she would come back as a Public Defender’s client with a long rap-sheet).  She likes walking on her hind legs……….and Lola doesn’t seem to mind.  Lola’s that good a rider.  Really, Lola doesn’t even seem to notice……………………me………………….I would notice………………….I would notice a lot.

Remember I’m the one with mud and a little bit of throw-up on my breeches at all times.

Lola, I first got to know as this disembodied voice (usually a bit garbled/because it was filled with mane).  I could only see the soles of her boots and her forearms and elbows climbing up Jezebel’s neck while Jezebel was rearing———–yet, again.

I’ve saved Lola’s Christmas cards throughout the years.  They always feature Jezebel.  The best is when a photographer caught Lola & Jezebel in mid-air, coming over a coop, contemplating landing…………..but they were both going in separate directions with separate landings.

Lola was ultimately fixed up with plastic surgery……………………….I wish I were kidding…………………

But she insisted on staying for the Tea first before going to the ER. Champagne always makes one’s owies feel better…………………Lola’s tough.

Jezebel was just fine.  Unruffled, photogenic, collected…………..at peace with the world.  Lola refers to her as her “Suzy Bruisy” doll, but on this day Jezebel was as sound as a bell.

Over the years while my family has been setting up for our post-Hunt Teas, it’s always been Jezebel wandering in riderless, or Lola coming back without Jezebel under her…………………various stages of mud-caking………………..both on horse and rider.  So much so that Lola will not ride in the Hunt on the days of our Tea, because something bizarre always happens.  She now considers it bad ju-ju to ride on the day of our Teas.

One year Jezebel wandered across the field from one direction, while the rest of the field came back towards the picnic tables from another direction.  When we caught Jezebel, she was covered in pink to fuchsia froth, foam and sweat……………………….that scared the #$&:%^@$^%# out of my family.

We caught her, checked her and held her for Lola (who had to come in double with another rider).  Just some superficial barbed wire cuts that looked so much more dramatic when diluted in sweat.

Lola———I don’t remember what condition she came back in.  I have the horse so prioritized in my mind.                    Sorry, Lola.  But you usually bounce pretty good.

I mean, this horse looks like she was sculpted out of lavender-gray alabaster.  She’s beautiful.  She’s drop-dead-gorgeous.  She’s one of those registries that has impeccable breeding, as well as, having been impeccably shown, AND had an impeccable baby………………………..to me, that means there is a little Jezabel out there lurking in bushes just waiting to pounce.

 

 

I did offer one of my draft mare’s uteruses for surrogacy should Lola want another Jezebel…………………………but, after some thought…………………………….we both decided against it……………………….I wonder why.

Lola has a fabulous eye for horses.  I’ve met a few of her mounts over the years.  All with great stories……………………..Elmo………………………one of my favorites……………….I believe he was the one with a mega-Asian-church-leader-previous-owner-background from New York City……………………..but his is another story………………..he was a sweetheart.

Lola had to leave the bonfire last night when she realized that her husband hadn’t given Jezebel a couple flakes of hay prior to leaving………….big mistake…………..

Given too much idle time, that meant Lola probably had her carpentry hammer at the ready and was taking out the nails from the boards in her stall to complete yet another escape.

There is a Club in our Hunt.  It’s the N.R.S.G. Club.  My husband’s a member, so is Lola’s.  It’s the Non-Riding Support Group Club.

 

 

*****Note to self~~~Know your limitations, and stick with your plow horses………Jezebel is so completely out of your league.