Preakness - Barbaro - OMG!!!

[Jennasis]

And she was so close to actually winning the race too! I still have nightmares about my own horses, where they are galloping along and suddenly crash like she did, and then get up and are still running with their leg dangling by a tiny strip of skin. Man I just cried and cried. My mom came running into the room because she heard me scream, and then she just stood there with her jaw on the floor watching that poor little girl still running towards the finish wire...with that leg...oh THAT LEG.

 

[zagafi]

I can still see it just...dangling and her trying to keep going. Same with Barbaro. QUIT simply isn't in a Thoroughbred's vocabulary, much to their own detriment at times.

 

[BriarfoxinWA]

Jenassis - good for you for letting the little mare be a horse for a while. I struggled for about a year with my mare beginning to get arthritis - she was 17. I finally decided that - you know what - she will be just as happy (if not happier) out in the pasture running with her buddy. She has no desire to continue trying for the upper dressage levels. So for her last 5 years that's what she did - ridden lightly and just got to be a horse.

 

[crazymomof4]

Positive changes are being made because of Barbaro!

Just think of all of the horses whose injuries will be prevented because a winsome young colt named Barbaro captured the world's attention and made us fall in love with him.

From the NY Times: "Beyond the gains made in veterinary medicine, horsemen said they were touched by the overwhelming interest in Barbaro. And just as the death of Dale Earnhardt in the 2001 Daytona 500 prompted Nascar to spend more on research to make its drivers safer, Barbaro’s breakdown brought urgency to reducing the number of catastrophic injuries to racehorses. One important change sweeping the industry is the installation of synthetic racing surfaces, which are said to be more forgiving.

In this tragedy, I believe there was some reassurance for the industry that horses matter to a lot of people,” said Jerry Bailey, the retired Hall of Fame jockey who is now an analyst for ESPN. “I wasn’t aware of the depths of how much America cares.”

 

[crazymomof4]

LA Times columnist compares Barbaro's death to that of a "furry bump on the road that used to be a squirrel"

http://www.latimes.com/sports/columnists/la-sp-simers30jan30,1,4331430.column?coll=la-news-columns

Ha! I sent TJ Simers (columnist) a long email and he sent a nasty reply! At least he read it! What a jerk!
Going to write to the newspaper's standards and practices dept. now!