02/08/07 One Horse

I shed a tear when I heard Barbaro was euthanized, I did. Something about the gallant attempt to save him along with his will to live touched me deeply. For me his saga was about the horses that never make it, the Ruffians or my own thoroughbred mare, lives cut short from shattered bones. A New York Times editorial stated that "humans are not especially good at noticing horses but Barbaro was easy to notice and if his life caused us to pay attention to the possibilities of all horses, his death was tragic because of what every horse is. You would have to look a long time to find a dishonest or cruel horse. And the odds are that if you did find one it was made cruel or dishonest by the company it kept with humans. It is no exaggeration to say that nearly every horse-Barbaro included, is pure of heart. Some faster, some slower. Some wind up in the winner's circle. But they should all evoke in us the generosity of conscience-a human quality, after all that was expended in the effort to save this one horse."