Part City chic part Farm chic
I grew up on the upper West side of New York City, in a building called The Dakota. Some people gasp when you say that but mostly the people I am around these days have no idea what that means. It is in fact a real NYC icon. Google it, chat GPT it or whatever your search engine is these days. It was a truly unique experience that I treasure.
You have to be on a list to get into the Dakota, that is how exclusive and protected that building is for good reason.
Although I loved and still do love NYC especially for all I learned growing up in the restaurant business, my heart always was somewhere else. In a barn, or wherever horses were. It is a gravitation pull that only horse lovers can understand. You are either so drawn to horses, you will do anything to construct your life to be around them, or you are afraid of them. Horses can put fear in us as well. Less then 2 years ago I took a terrifying spill off my horse Disco and it almost scared me enough to stop riding. But I couldn’t.
In 2001 after losing my father to cancer, inheriting the role of acting C.E.O. of Tavern on the Green and the Russian Team Room and living through 9/11 in New York City I started riding horses again. I had not ridden since I was a teenager. I decided life was too short and I would literally bust into tears if I saw a horse - it was time.
Five years later my brother died in a motorcycle accident. He bought the bike and died the next day on it. The last thing he said to me was, “ Get a bike Jenn, it will change your whole prospective on life.”
That was when I decided I wanted to wake up and see my horses outside my window everyday. And that is when Oz Farm was born.
Years later I now get to combine my two favorite things: riding horses and producing events and I do that at Oz Farm. Going from NYC chic to Horse farm/event owner has its extremely challenging moments but in the end I cannot get enough time at the farm, and that is how I know it is where I am supposed to be.
More on this and the 23 acres of grass I mow weekly coming soon. . .
#onlybadwitchesareugly
