[QUOTE=skatepixie;2179767]
That would allow more fans to “visit” him.[/QUOTE]
So Bloodhorse is now reporting that they have offered - no confirmation yet.
[QUOTE=niceb;2178515]
I can only imagine the emptiness and grief felt at NBC tonight, all those months of caring, day and night, for this wonderful creature only to have his stall empty tonight. He was able to beat the broken bones but the deadly laminitis is what took him. I could not stop crying when I read that Barbaro had been laid to rest. This all hit so close to home, it was also in the month of January when I lost my beloved mare 2 years ago after many months of battling laminitis in three feet. I pray one day our equine partners will not have to face this dreaded disease. I cried like a baby after watching Dr. R on the news, he loved this horse as did so many others who’s lives he touched. What heroic efforts on Dr. Richardson’s and the Jackson’s part- they did everything humanly possible to try to save this horse, this was a labor of love. They are commendable. Barbaro was a fighter with such heart and he put up a tremendous battle but this morning he told his caregivers that he simply could not fight any longer. I believe Barbaro knew up until his last breath that he was loved…as he galloped off on strong healthy legs into eternity. Run free sweet Barbaro, run free…[/QUOTE]
Perfectly put and beautifully said, as many others have.
Regarding the Churchill Downs Kentucky Derby Museum burial possibility …
Associated Press 1-30-07 “Barbaro may be buried at Churchill Downs”
Officials at the Kentucky Derby Museum, located on the grounds of Churchill Downs, said Tuesday they’d be “honored” if Barbaro were buried in a garden along with four other Derby winners.
“We’ve expressed to them how honored we’d be to have Barbaro here,” Lynn Ashton, executive director of the museum, said. “We feel like we’re bringing horses back to be honored.”
The grave sites of Derby winners Sunny’s Halo (1983), Carry Back (1961), Swaps (1955) and Brokers Tip (1933) are located outside on the museum grounds.
Other possibilities include the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Ky., and the Jacksons’ Lael Farm, just a few miles away from the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center.
Godspeed Barbaro…
VB - thank you so much for your devotion to this magnificent animal.
My heart is breaking for the Jacksons, Michael Matz, Edgar Prado and the NBC staff - in the end, he let them know that the fight was too hard and they listened…
A lovely piece in the Wash Post…
A ‘Bottomless’ Heart
By Sally Jenkins
Tuesday, January 30, 2007; Page E01
In diagnosing the public’s unreasoning love for Barbaro, maybe it comes down to the fact that he never lied to us. Human nature seems like a sorry, wastrel thing, compared to that horse. No doubt, we idealized him, but the fact is, we could have used a happy ending for Barbaro, given some of the Gilded Age characters who parade safely through public life into retirement. His survival seemed like one good thing, a balm for foreign wars, domestic deceit, and the bimbo cocktail party circuit, ruthless wealth-swappage, and cross-entouraging that we lately call American culture.
Barbaro was an honest, blameless competitor. Our ridiculously soft feeling for him was based at least partly on that fact. Unlike so many people in the sports pages, he was neither felonious, nor neurotic. He let us place burdens on him, whether a saddle, a bet, or a leg brace, and he carried them willingly, even jauntily.
On the track, his trainer and jockey reported that there seemed no end to what he was willing to give. “Bottomless,” was how they described his heart. He obviously raced for pleasure, and he ran with such dynamic abandon that he made circling a track seem an impetuous act. His effort was always sincere and supreme, and when he won the Kentucky Derby by 6 1/2 lengths, the largest margin in the race since 1946, it was less of a surprise than an affirmation to the people who had reared him. “Why shouldn’t we have felt that way? Every time he had run before, he never let us down,” trainer Michael Matz said to the Thoroughbred Times. “His will to win was obvious in whatever he did.”
Also, he was handsome. On display in his stall, he had the calm expression of an inveterate star, and a preening stance that suggested he’d heard the roar of the crowd and knew he’d won the big one. Even his doctor, Dean Richardson, who hardly saw him at his best, noticed this. When he was asked why Barbaro excited such affection from perfect strangers, a choked Richardson replied, “He was good looking.”
We followed his medical reports like they were our own. Phrases like “laminitic area,” and “deep subsolar abscess” became familiar, as did the anatomy of his horribly damaged hind leg, the shattered pastern and sesamoid, and the pinned cannon bone.
There have been continual attempts to analyze why Barbaro’s fight to survive so captivated the public, but maybe it’s fairly simple: He had both innocence and greatness and it’s not often you find those ephemeral qualities alive in the same creature. What’s more, anyone who watched Barbaro run in the Derby felt that they saw traces of a distinct character: He was winsome. This gave his suffering specificity. We felt we knew him.
Possibly, this is anthropomorphic, and some have rightly pointed out that we should care as much about human beings. But it’s not anthropomorphic to say that horses are irreproachably benevolent creatures, and this is surely one of the causes of our grief over Barbaro. It’s a fact that of 4,000-odd animal species, only a very few are tame-able, none more so than horses. They are peaceful grazers by nature, and willing by disposition. Despite their considerable size advantage, they tolerate us and even bear burdens for us. While thoroughbreds can certainly be fearsome, their misbehavior is a flight response, not sadism, or outlawry. They have followed us, and favored us with their gifts to an extent that few other animals do, and partnered with us throughout history, from Persia to the Pony Express. “Gallant” is a word often applied to them, and it’s apt.
Barbaro seems to have had all the virtues of his breed, and a few more besides. His character wasn’t a matter of wishful projection, it existed, and was quite vivid to those who cared for him. He was indefatigable and had a high tolerance for pain. He was mettlesome without being spiteful – and how often do you find that? He was expressive. In a lovely piece a few weeks ago by John Scheinman of The Washington Post, one of his night nurses described him as “mouthy.” He befriended another patient at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa.: a cow. When he slept, his night nurse would pet him.
Despite pain and confinement, he wasn’t mean. Among the things that caused his owners, Roy and Gretchen Jackson, to give up hope yesterday was that, in the grip of wounded exhaustion, he finally tried to bite the hand of his doctor, Richardson. It was a first in eight months of treatment.
Novelist Jane Smiley wrote a strange and wonderful book a couple of years ago called “A Year at the Races,” in which she explained, with an articulacy missing here, that the human engagement with horses is nothing less than a love story. If you were wondering why the death of Barbaro hurts so, there is the answer:
“A love story, at least a convincing one, requires three elements: the lover, the beloved, and the adventures they have together,” Smiley wrote. “If the lover isn’t ardent, then the story isn’t a love story. If the beloved isn’t appealing, then the lover just seems idiosyncratic or even crazy; and if they have no adventures, then their love is too easy, and they have no way of learning anything important about themselves and one another.”
Barbaro was appealing, and he was obviously beloved by the public, and by his owners. If the public learned anything from him, it was that with enjoyment of thoroughbreds comes responsibility for doing the right thing by them. One of the few consoling results from the Barbaro tragedy was an anonymous gift of $500,000 for the establishment of the Barbaro Fund, for animal care at the hospital where he died. Yesterday, it was Gretchen Jackson who best summed up the public outpouring for a horse. “Certainly, grief is the price we all pay for love,” she said.
[QUOTE=VirginiaBred;2179141]
Thanks, Alex~
“It is rough, but not to be there is rough,” Gretchen Jackson said of being in the stall at the end.[/I] “He’s been a friend or whatever, everything to us… I think we’ve been concerned about him for a while. We just wanted the right moment where he’s still himself. I think it had reached the point where it was timely.”
.[/QUOTE]
It must’ve been hard for Michael and Peter not to be there.
[QUOTE=VirginiaBred;2179278]
For Condolences
Mr. and Mrs. Jackson
c/o School of Veterinary Medicine
New Bolton Center
382 West Street Road
Kennett Square, PA 19348
Condolences may also be sent to Edgar Prado and Dr. Dean Richardson & Staff to that address.[/QUOTE]
THANK YOU!!!
[QUOTE=J. Turner;2180028]
It must’ve been hard for Michael and Peter not to be there.[/QUOTE]
Vintage farms is full of wonderful people - I got an email from them this morning and I think they are just proud to be associated with such a great horse.
Thanks, Alex~
Update 1412: It was Fair Hill as usual this morning, but of course it was not usual. The atmosphere was a little subdued, and I suspect quite a few people simply had nothing to say. A few riders offered their thoughts, as did a couple of trainers. Mostly they were just sad that this had to happen to such a wonderful horse who had shown great talent determination and will. Many of us have memories of Barbaro from the good days, when he was a runner. We may have watched his final work before the Preakness (he did not look like he was working, just galloping); or simply watched him graze, without a care in the world, in one of Michael Matz’s paddocks two days after destroying the field in the Kentucky Derby. Anyway, I am sure we all remembered our moments and memories this morning.
I rode six, my usual six. They all went well, although it was a bit of a blur. My cell phone rang quite a lot, I talked to a few media people who are becoming friends. Perhaps I should interview them on their attachment to Barbaro. As I was grazing Hawty Creek at the end of the morning a “Fan of Barbaro” stopped by for a chat. It was nice to share a few thoughts.
You ran a GREAT!! race, Barbaro…
May you Rest In Peace
~Darci~
thunderstorms and hoofbeats
Quote
“God is certainly amassing quite the racing string”
This hit me. I’ve heard many different things about what the sound of thunder is. Now I have a new one to tell my son:
The thunder we hear is the sound of the horses we love galloping about the green pastures of Heaven. Barbaro will definitely be among those thundering hoofbeats, and we can be happy for him.
I have always hated thunderstorms but I think now I will think of them differently and may be less anxious about them
All of Barbaro’s caregivers were a class act throughout this whole ordeal. My condolences to them all.
[QUOTE=fooler;2179384]
After her death, they developed the water+sling process used so successfully with Barbaro. Thanks to her, he (and so many other horses) have a chance live.[/QUOTE]
Actually, New Bolton had the water recovery system in place already when Ruffian died (I confirmed this with New Bolton earlier). I always thought it was so sad that she couldn’t have been taken there, but the distance was too far.
For an astonishing array of articles about Barbaro, go to www.equidaily.com
Just to see the length of the list makes your jaw drop.
From the Seattle P-I: When your hero is a horse and the horse dies there’s nothing much to say, but I have a grandson named Liam and he’ll ask me questions I can’t answer here or anywhere… I have no words of comfort more than this. My hero is a horse. His name is Barbaro. He shattered his leg but did not shatter a boy’s heart. He gave my grandson hope. Liam learned more about life from a valiant horse’s death than these few words can say.
Ruffian’s fracture was open - even with people saving those are tough!
Barbaro gave us hope for many months, which is unusual, normally it is ended quickly. He let us get to know him and his family. My heart goes out to all involved. The learning process is all we can hope for now…New methods and techniques…research into laminitis (which is of the utmost importance)
If you ever had a horse founder you know how bad it can get and recovery is not certain even with the best care.
Godspeed Barbaro!
Thanks, Alex~
Update 1413: I went over to New Bolton at Lunchtime. There are some nice flowers displayed in the lobby area. There were also some flowers placed on the outside fence line. There are still some media there and we went to lunch. Actually six of us went to lunch, but only three of us stayed and ate lunch! Jeannine Edwards, John Hennegan (First Saturday in May) and I had some nice conversations about Barbaro, horse racing in general and John’s documentary.
When we returned to New Bolton I asked Jeannine and Mike Jensen what is was like to cover a story like Barbaro, and both have covered it pretty extensively. Both agreed yesterday was a hard day for them. Jeannine noted that it was tough to have to ask questions of people who are clearly grieving when on a personal level she has a lot of empathy for their situation, and I think, quite frankly likes the horse like any of us and is very sad about this outcome!
I also ran into Kathy Freeborn and Jennifer Rench of New Bolton. If they are reflective of the entire staffs’ mood for the sad loss of Barbaro, then New Bolton is a sad place today.
Dr. Richardson sent me a nice e-mail this morning thanking me for the work we have done on this site, and I hope we continue. He noted he had read the site, if not very often!
There was an article just a few minutes ago that said Churchill Downs had offered a burial site for Barbaro. nice.
Mr. and Mrs. Jackson on Larry King tonight
I heard this on CNN.
[QUOTE=Wings of Hope;2180464]
I heard this on CNN.[/QUOTE]
Larry King is well known around the racing circles - I believe he was at the Eclipse awards.
