And All That Jazz

By Jen Garutti

The night of October 27, 2023 started off quite nicely; my husband and I headed up the street for a nice dinner at one of our favorite local restaurants, and when we got home, I headed right out to the barn for night check. Everything changed in an instant. 

The temperature was starting to drop and so there was a light coating of dew on the grass. I slipped and fell, and as I hit the hill in the backyard, I instantly knew from the sound that I had done some significant damage to my ankle. In typical horse girl fashion, my brain jumped right into action: I shouted for my husband, then texted one of my best friends to see if she could come and do night check chores.

My husband was able to get me up, into the car, and off to the emergency room. It was almost a full moon, so even though we live in a fairly rural area, the ER was a nut house. They managed to get me in for x-rays pretty quickly but it was well after midnight before I got into a room. The ER doctor was appalled with my x-rays, and determined I needed to be knocked out so they could reduce and splint the injury. 

All splinted up and with some hefty pain meds on board, I was sent home with instructions to see an orthopedic surgeon the next day. My best friend coordinated with all my boarders and organized a temporary plan to make sure that the horses were cared for while we sorted out next steps. 

After an appointment with a local orthopedic doctor, and getting less than a warm and fuzzy feeling about the entire process, I opted to make an appointment at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. They are the top ranked orthopedic hospital in the country for the last fourteen years, and are only a little over an hour from us in New Jersey. 

There, I met with Dr. Jensen Henry, who was just amazing. Based on her very comprehensive approach to putting me back together and back to my life, we decided it would be worth the many visits in and out of the city to ensure the best possible outcome.

I had surgery on November 3, 2023. It was a lengthy operation, and I now have a hardware store’s worth of hardware in that ankle. From there, it was lots of follow-up appointments, and orders for the ankle to remain non-weight-bearing for an extended period of time. 

I had managed to cobble together a schedule, between boarders helping with chores and a few paid helpers to keep my barn operating day-to-day, and the horses were well-cared for, but it was crazy stressful trying to run the barn from the couch. Thankfully, my young horse Doc (see Pride and Pony Prejudice: Cool Springs Mr. Darcy) was already slated to go to Florida, so that helped ease some of my stress. 

About two weeks into my recovery, with my stress level very high, I made the very difficult decision to close my personal barn and small boarding business for the winter. At that point, getting back to riding and taking care of horses seemed so far off and I knew I really needed to focus on my recovery, and subsequent rehab.

With the barn closed, I was able to take a breath and focus on my next steps, which included a ton of physical therapy. At my first follow up with my surgeon, two weeks after surgery, the giant cast came and I was terrified when I was not able to move my foot at all. My Achilles tendon had totally frozen up. I was sent home with some resistance bands and orders to start slowly pulling on the ball of my foot to begin releasing the locked tendons. 

Weeks of continued non-weight-bearing recovery to go, I threw my focus onto regaining my range of motion. Shortly after that, I was cleared to start working with a physical therapist. 

I chose a local PT that was popular with a lot of my horse friends as she, Erin Centolanza, is an avid equestrian herself, and would understand the range of motion and stability I would need to regain in order to ride and manage my farm. We hit it off from the get-go, and she was wonderful at giving me strong half-halts, as I needed them to keep me from pushing too hard too soon. We did lots of range of motion exercises, and lots of massage and icing to start working through all the swelling and to keep too much scar tissue from forming

At the eight week post-injury mark, I was allowed to slowly start some weight bearing (25% of full weight). I could increase that weekly until I was fully weight bearing by week twelve post-surgery, all still wearing a cumbersome boot.

My body was a mess as well, so I started going back to my chiropractor to fix everything that had been twisted around while keeping weight off that leg. It was a lot of work; two to three PT sessions each week, and lots of at-home exercises, but I was slowly making progress. I did have to do a lot of gait training to learn how to walk again, which was frustrating and weird all at the same time.

By March I was walking well enough to consider a visit to see Doc in Ocala. I even got the blessing to sit in the saddle and hack around a little bit – BUT no real riding! That trip was wonderful – it brought some of my soul back into my body, and gave me a new motivation to keep progressing in my PT. 

In early April, I had a second surgery to remove one long stabilization screw that was impinging on my range of motion. Dr. Henry replaced that with a second tight rope anchor, because on top of breaking my ankle into many pieces, I had also shredded the ligaments. There was not anything left to repair, and during the initial surgery, she had already installed one tight rope fixation. 

This surgery was much easier, with a much easier recovery, and about a month after, I was cleared by Erin to get back to some riding. Enter the most amazing boy – Avatar’s Jazzman, aka Jazz.

Toward the end of April, my long-time friend and dressage trainer Lauren Chumley had returned from Florida, and had reached out to see if I would be interested in the most amazing opportunity: leasing Jazz. 

Back story: Jazz is an amazing Morgan pony, who has competed through Grand Prix level in dressage, through Training Level in Eventing, and who loves to fox hunt and participate in hunter paces – all the fun things. He is so cool that he has actually been made into a Breyer horse! Avatar’s Jazzman | Retired — BreyerHorses.com

I’ve known Jazz since I started riding with Lauren and have always adored him. I’ve also taken lessons on him from time to time. He is just the coolest dude, and I was blown away and humbled by the offer. Of course I was onboard with that plan! I was as giddy as a little girl getting her first pony.

I was still a few weeks away from being ready to reopen my barn, but I was able to get over to Lauren’s farm to start taking some lessons with her on Jazz. He was so kind and so good, given my lack of all things riding-wise at that time; I was totally out of shape, had no stamina, and had little feeling or strength in one ankle. Still, it felt so great to be back in the saddle and to start to start thinking about goals I have had for a long time.

One of those goals was to earn my USDF Bronze Medal. I had my necessary First and Second Level scores, but had not earned any at Third Level yet. Jazz was the perfect partner to help me get there!

In mid-May, Jazz came home to my farm, and in early June, my boarders all moved back in. I continued to ship up to Lauren’s facility weekly for lessons. Slowly, I was rebuilding my endurance and strength in the saddle. Outside of lessons with Lauren, Jazz and I were enjoying schooling at home, hacking out, and some hunter paces with my friend and boarder. Meanwhile, Doc was now home from Florida, but on his return home, we made the tough decision that his dream job was not dressage – he in fact wanted to be a hunter. Having Jazz really helped me through that realization and decision. 

I set a goal to be back in the show ring by mid-July to make my Third Level debut. We continued to work at it, and I got stronger week by week. The July show arrived, and Jazz was an absolute gem. He was so happy to be back out horse showing. We laid down good tests – despite a few piaffes he threw in on the centerline for fun! – and earned the two scores for me to get my Bronze Medal, as well as qualify for the Great American/USDF Regional Dressage Championships! I was ecstatic. We still had lots to work on and improve, but eight-and-a-half months post-surgery– I was back!

We continued lessoning and schooling all summer, with lots of trail riding and hunter paces, and just had fun. Have I mentioned that Jazz is perfect? He loves to work, and is so easy and fun to have around. He is the king of the farm, eats first, goes out first, and comes in first. He gets whatever he wants, he has earned it! 

We showed again in September, just to get some more time in the ring and for me to get more practice riding the Third Level Test Three before regionals. I also started jumping again, and Jazz was thrilled. He loves to jump. 

In October we headed down to the Great American/USDF Region 1 Dressage Championships in Lexington, Virginia. Jazz was giddy to be at a big show away from home, and was so happy to be out and about. We did a few warm up classes, including my first ever time cantering down centerline in my first Fourth Level test, and earned my first score towards my USDF Silver Medal! 

We had a blast and even though we finished outside the ribbons, just getting there less than a year from that horrific slip-and-fall ankle injury was an amazing accomplishment. I was so happy, and so thankful to everyone who played a role in the recovery to help me get back to doing what I love. I am very lucky to have such an amazing village.

We are now wintering in New Jersey. I’m not sure how Jazz feels about that, since he has spent most of his winter in Florida. But we are doing lots of road hacking, jump clinics, and lessons to get us firmed up for Fourth Level, and hopefully our Prix St. Georges debut. Lauren told me to shop for my shadbelly!

In 2025, expect to see us back in the dressage ring, and also out eventing. Every day I am so thankful for Jazz, Lauren, and Jazz’s owner Melissa Dowling, for giving me such an amazing opportunity. Jazz will be 23 this year, but truly does not show it; he is a freak of nature, and still loves to work, hack, and jump. He truly was the very best part of my rehab. I adore him and he never has to leave my farm. 

Having him in my life is the best part of my comeback story!