Had to share this with you. According to Barbaro’s usual vet at Fair Hill, a couple of U.S. soldiers presented Barbaro with a folded American flag that had been flying in Iraq.
Here’s the link: Tim Woolley Horseracing.
Why has this horse caught the imagination of so many people? (Yes, there are plenty of people who don’t understand why animals are important, who just don’t get it. But I’m not talking about them.)
The other day at Murder She Writes, Allison Brennan talked about “the hero’s journey”, and how important that journey is to the underpinning of great fiction. I think Barbaro’s story embodies the hero’s journey. I think that is why his story is irresistable to so many. Here was a horse who really could have won the Triple Crown. Most horseman would agree with that assessment. He could win on turf and he could win on dirt. He was tractable and yet had phenomenal speed when he needed it. He seemed unassailable. Then the worst happened. It happened in front of the cameras, televised to the world, and revealed horseracing’s deepest shame: that yes, Virginia, horses are still killed on the racetrack. The people around Barbaro held up screens. Anyone who’s ever been on a racetrack knows what that means. The shocked crowd, so close to crowning a champion many thought had not been seen since the likes of Secretariat, suddenly believed he would be dead within moments, and carted away from view.
But he wasn’t euthanized. His injury was catastrophic, the odds almost impossible. But this champion had a champion’s heart and a champion’s mind. Other heroes grew in ranks around him; his owners, Gretchen and Roy Jackson, his trainer Michael Matz and his family, his rider, Peter Brette, his jockey, Edgar Prado, his groom, Eduardo Hernandez, his regular vet, Kathy Anderson, and another Matz groom, Rafael Orozco, who helped hold Barbaro on the track, and all the people at the track and on the ambulance who got him to New Bolton. And a new hero, Dr. Dean Richardson.
Nothing was spared in saving this horse. People waited and watched and prayed and hoped and cried.
The story is far from over, but we are more hopeful every day. Why? Because this horse is creating a miracle with every day he lives and thrives. By being the individual he is, by accepting his fate with grace and a good nature, by taking care of himself.
Animals do amazing things. Look at rescue dogs. They are not just things without souls, as some people believe. And man’s bond with other animals is stronger than some people can imagine.
We’re smack in the middle of the Hero’s Journey. Barbaro has gone to the gates of death and now he is coming back, and he is bringing back a gift, just as Joseph Campbell described in THE POWER OF MYTH.
He’s bringing back a gift, and it’s for us.
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