Bless Barbaro
It’s one of those mornings when news rules. I love those mornings. I’m heading to the Salt Lake County Council chambers in 20 minutes for a news conference with county Mayor Peter Corroon. He’s going to explain his decision for saying “no” to public funding for the Salt Lake Real stadium in Sandy.
Right now, I’m in Cooroon’s corner. We’ll see what plays out as the day moves along.
And I just heard on ABC radio network news that dynamo racehorse Barbaro was put down this morning. The victim of a shattered right leg last year, the Kentucky Derby winner had developed laminitis, a painful infection of his left leg. Vets treated that problem, but an infection crept into the horse’s right leg — the one that was originally broken. It got to be too much. The pain became unbearable.
I heard one of Barbaro’s vets interviewed a few hours ago on National Public Radio. He had a tone of resignation in his voice — as if the decision had been made, but why not hold on a little longer? The vet talked about this horse’s will to fight, and to live.
He said he’s seen it before in other thoroughbreds. They want to run. They seem to know it isn’t their role to stand inside a posh stable, living slower, operating in recovery mode. The vet said Barbaro had every inch of will he needed to live.
The fight is over. Sad. But amazing.
January 29th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Of course I don’t like to see a beautiful animal such as Barbaro killed but I don’t know how anyone measures the “will to live” in a horse. We can get an idea in humans of this will to live but only the individual knows for sure how extensive and deep seated it is.
I have a friend that is convinced that her dog loves her. There is no dissuading her.
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:41 pm
As a veteran triple crown watcher, I, like many others, was devasted when this amazing animal broke down on the track. I think the key here is, like Seabisquit during the depression years, Barbaro took our minds breifly away from the horrors of daily reports out of Iraq and focused instead on hope for this magnificient animal. The hope is there still that, with the outpouring of funds and top notch vet care, something important was learned to keep so many of these animals from being put down because they can’t race anymore. Godspeed Barbaro!