Barbaro-a champion and a true competitor
Posted by Reeve on January 29, 2008
A year ago today, Barbaro was euthanized. We lost a champion that day, and today, his owners announced his ashes will be interred at Churchill Downs, where an undefeated Barbaro, in 2006, trounced the field to win the 2006 Kentucky Derby by 6 1/2 lengths.
Two weeks after his Derby win, Barbaro suffered a debilitating leg injury while racing in the Preakness. The damage to his right hind leg was horrible, with more than 20 breaks. While most animals would survive such an injury, especially with the resources of the University of Pennsylvania’s world-renowned New Bolton Center supporting the recovery effort, horses need all four legs to handle their substantial weight. When one goes bad, the other three are severely stressed and can’t handle the additional weight. Laminitis, a disease which affects those parts of a horse’s foot anatomy that handle the shock from running and is often a byproduct of equine leg injuries, set in on his left rear leg. More complications ensued and laminitis set in on his front legs. At that point, his owners, believing his pain was unmanageable, made the courageous and humane decision to put him down without fanfare.
The pain Barbaro’s owners and fans felt was greater.
I’m not a horse person. They’re skittish and not very smart; like TeddyBear, they get by on their looks or their horse-ness. My lovely first wife Stacey shattered her knee when her very nice horse pitched her off during a dressage lesson for no reason at all. If you don’t know anything about dressage, I’ll give you my opinion: watching paint dry is more interesting.
But back to Barbaro. Like thousands of others, I followed his recovery. Given the poor (50-50) prognosis for such injuries, all of us were thrilled when he appeared to be making progress. We wanted to see him grazing in the sunlight and fresh air, giving the mares the eye (and anything else he was paid for).
But a year ago, he lost his last race. Even in losing, he remains a champion and a true competitor.
As far as I’m concerned, he’s still undefeated.
This entry was posted on January 29, 2008 at 11:41 pm and is filed under Life. Tagged: Barbaro. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
