After five hours of surgery, Barbaro is walking again. But he’s still not out of the woods, they still might have to send him away to horsey heaven. And it’s really touching to me how much people care about Barbaro the horse. All of these horse lovers, who are so devoted to an activity that sees about 800 horses die a year after injuries suffered on the track, pulling together to save one special horse, because he’s so very fast. It’s beautiful. It’s what being an animal lover is all about.
And I’d just like to give a personal thank you to the people who showed up at the frontgate of the animal hospital with signs that said, “Thank you, Barbaro,” and “We Love You, Barbaro.” That is exactly what I would have done if I was there, and if horses could fucking read.
I may sound callous with this, but I just don’t know who makes a sign that says, “Thank you, Barbaro.” On so many levels, I am confused. As already noted… the horse can’t read. Did the lady think this horse was Mr. Ed, and that he would see the sign, stomp his foot twice and say, “Hey, thanks, lady. I like your hat, too.” And then, forgive me, but why are we thanking Barbaro? Did he help you hit your exacta at the Kentucky Derby? And if so, I don’t think he did it to help you out, I think he did it because the little guy in silk was beating the fuck out of him with a whip.
I feel genuinely bad that the horse is in trouble. Truly, I do. I like animals. But the affection for this one particular animal doesn’t make sense to me. A lot of horses get killed that aren’t as fast, and that probably have personalities just as sparkling as that of Barbaro. People who say that they love horse racing because they really love the animals is kinda like saying, “Yeah, I really love kids. That’s why I kidnap so many of them and stuff them in my closet.” It makes sense to me that if people really loved horses, they’d hate an activity that was so cruel to them.
The Big Picture
i wrote about the same thing about the compassioin for this one horse. the signs, those fucking signs. have people lost it?
May 22, 2006 at 2:20 am
Brenda
Barbaro WILL NEVER BE GLUE!!!!
YOU ARE TRULLY SAD PERSON.
May 22, 2006 at 3:08 am
Retarsheed
Hey, your need to be snide and make fun of people showing compassion for a celebrity is amusing and shallow.
You could take your derision of people caring about something or someone they don’t know and wonder why people give a crap about random people dying on 9/11.
I mean..SOOOOO Many people die on daily basis but why do we waste our time caring about some random people dying in some building? OHHHHH NOW YOU UNDERSTAND..
May 22, 2006 at 8:41 am
Big Daddy
MJD – again you make me laugh outloud at work! “That is exactly what I would have done if I was there, and if horses could fucking read.” Keep it coming!
May 22, 2006 at 9:02 am
Bish
A-freaking-men.
What’s even stranger is to hear the Sports talking heads get all somber and subdued when speaking of what a “great tragedy” this is. IT’S A FUCKING HORSE! WHO’S NOT EVEN DEAD!
May 22, 2006 at 9:23 am
twoeightnine
I was thinking about this as I was getting ready for work this morning. It’s the lead story on all Philadelphia media outlets (he’s from the area and was operated on in the suburbs). Paper, internet, tv… they all update his condition every 10 minutes.
May 22, 2006 at 9:49 am
sallypierre
i love barbaro so much i want to marry him.
of course, i’m already married and he’s a horse.
oh well.
thank you.
May 22, 2006 at 9:53 am
David A.
I’m with you to a point, but I think the bigger issue is: He’s a freaking HORSE. Not a person. Therefore, not an athlete. Therefore, this situation is different than if a person broke his ankle on TV. There wasn’t half the reaction when Geoff Jenkins’s ankle disintegrated a few years back, or Jason Kendall, or Robin Ventura… Anthropomorphizing Barbaro is a decent name for a snarky punk cover band, not something you should devote significant brainpower to actually doing.
May 22, 2006 at 10:31 am
mr elevation
Retarsheed if you cant see the difference between 9-11 and a horse breaking its ankle you’re a dumbass. Did you cry when every single horse got hurt last year?
May 22, 2006 at 11:04 am
D.T.
Read the articles about this horse. He’s the Matt Leinart of horse racing… everyone fawns over him as if he were the greatest thing to happen to the sport. His trainer is saying he’s already trying to tap the mare ‘visitors’ that have been brought by his stall just hours after surgery. If Leinart went down, there would be vigils kept outside his hospital room all the while Paris Hilton performed for him to keep his spirits up. If the word ‘d-bag’ can be applied to a horse, I think this is the perfect time to use it.
May 22, 2006 at 11:13 am
Don Chavez
This is the exact response I’d expect from someone who isn’t a horse racing fan…who cares it’s a horse?
To fans of horse racing though this is a big deal, many people have been waiting over 27 years to see a Triple Crown champion, and now it has been postponed again in a very tragic way.
Why don’t we care when a human athlete breaks an ankle? It’s because it’s not life threatening and that athlete will be walking again in 8 weeks and possibly back in training.
I do agree with you on the signs, we all know horses can’t read…but trust me people do care about the other 800 horses that die. The difference is that almost all of those horses are not running in one of the biggest races of the year, on national television.
There are alot of things in this country that people care about that is mind boggling. Celebrity divorces, Star Jones’ wedding, K-fags new album…who cares? But obviously someone does otherwise we wouldn’t be writing about it and the media wouldn’t be covering it.
May 22, 2006 at 12:02 pm
max power
Your with me, adhesive
May 22, 2006 at 12:26 pm
telly
that was a thing of beauty.
May 22, 2006 at 1:26 pm
theotheruw
You imply that it’s hypocritical to feel bad for Barabaro yet follow the sport. How about the mortality rate for NFL linemen? The NFL prompts them to get bigger and bigger depite the known health risks. Should people stop watching the NFL? Same analogy with boxing.
People can root for an athlete despite the fact he’s an asshole because of what he does on the field. Same with horses. People can respect and appreciate their size, speed and accomplishments.
I watch horseracing and don’t feel I’m a hypocrit for feeling sick about Barabaro’s injury. I know Barbaro doesn’t give a shit about me can’t read (just like some U of Miami draft picks), but that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate Barbaro as an athlete and feel bad that his career (and possibly his life) has ended.
People take disproportionate interests in tragedies all the time for some reason. Take Jon Benet Ramsey. Children are killed and abused every day, but they don’t make the headlines of every paper. Just how things are, I guess. Similar to how people grieve the death of an athlete they never met.
Some people like horseracing, others don’t. I do, you don’t. If you want to try and understand people’s reactions, read “Ruffian: Burning from the Start.” Good book about a filly that suffered a similar injury.
May 22, 2006 at 1:39 pm
mc
props to max power
May 22, 2006 at 2:01 pm
unc_samurai
Is it bad that every time I hear his name I think of that guy that played Safety for the Chiefs years ago?
May 22, 2006 at 4:12 pm
phenyl_engine_rods
Here’s the difference between horse racing and the NFL:
Linemen can choose to quit.
The choice to play in the NFL involves weighing (some of) the following factors: monetary rewards; social rewards; enjoyment of the game; health risks; the alternative employment possibilities allowed by one’s education and talents. No one puts a gun to your head and forces you to sign an NFL contract. For that matter, no one sits on your back with a whip and forces you to sign the contract.
The horse pretty much has a choice about how fast to run away from the guy with the whip. And running slowly or refusing to let him on your back isn’t exactly a viable option.
So yeah, your analogy’s a little imperfect.
May 22, 2006 at 4:14 pm
daseib
don chavez…. you act like this is a tradgedy bc the fucking triple crown was lost for another year and-got damm i-we deserve a triple crown after 27 years!! who the f___ cares, the horse broke his leg and another horse won…that is why it is called horse racing!!
May 22, 2006 at 4:29 pm
eddie
I love that picture. I don’t give a fuck about this horse.
May 22, 2006 at 5:21 pm
Don Chavez
Daseib
It’s a tragedy alone that the horse was injured, and the fact that he had a very good chance of winning the TC adds to the fact.
Myself and hundreds of thousands of other people care, it’s obvious that you don’t. That’s why your comment is on this site instead of on a thoroughbred site.
May 22, 2006 at 7:43 pm
thedon3wv
It would’nt make any sense to stand outside a hospital with signs that say we love you if it were an NFL player recovering from surgery either because most of them cant read either!!!!
May 22, 2006 at 8:05 pm
Jimbo Mercy
Elmer’s Glue is made of people. Peopuhhhhhhhl!
Whoo! 5762!
May 23, 2006 at 1:26 am
David A.
Don Chavez, you’re missing the collective point. It is not tragic in the least that the horse broke its leg. It is unfortunate that its (I’m intentionally using “its” instead of “his”) owners can’t go for the glory of a Triple Crown, and that its semen might not be in as high demand due to health questions. However, it’s a horse and not a person. It’s ridiculous to call Barbaro an “athlete”, just as it was ridiculous to make a SportsCentury about Secretariat; I fail to see how non-human forced performance is sporting, and I think the anthropomorphizing of racehorses is overcompensation.
May 23, 2006 at 4:58 am
HaywoodJablomie
A sign that reads “I Love You, Barbaro” pretty much says it all … I mean, come on …
Those people need serious help …
May 23, 2006 at 5:26 pm
David A.
Do you want to send Barbaro an email?
http://www.vet.upenn.edu/barbaro/
May 23, 2006 at 6:19 pm
Don Chavez
Why send an email when you can chat with him on nbc10.com?
http://www.nbc10.com/sports/9216109/detail.html
May 24, 2006 at 10:44 pm
Tammy
Being someone who used to work at the track (matter of fact, I was Monarchos’s hotwalker when he was 2) I must say this: To all you horse racing fans, spend a day with these animals and see how they are treated, they are locked in a box 23 hours a day, they are a little unstable. You would be too. My question is, why aren’t all these “animal lovers” protesting the way their idols are treated on a day to day basis? It’s cruelty, it truly is. Where is PETA? Where is the humane society. I guess the rich really can do whatever they want. And if Barbaro weren’t the Derby winner, he probably would be glue because if he had died, the insurance money would have been a great little windfall….
June 16, 2006 at 4:29 pm
Victrola
I think you are a heartless ass hole who should be put down!!!! So what if he is just a Horse????? I will never buy another bottle of glue unless your body parts are in it. So stick that up you fuckin’ Elmers ASS Hole
August 19, 2006 at 2:03 pm
Kenny
HA HA HA
Hey, guess what…
HE’S GLUE
LMFAO
Fuckers
January 29, 2007 at 9:28 pm
PhillySteve
Finally that friggin horse is dead.. My lord, there’s kids starvin all over the world and the news in Philly spends 10 minutes on the nightly news for this future bottle of glue.. Ridiculous..
January 30, 2007 at 12:08 am
susanne
what all the foregoing idiots fail to realize, is that the owners didn’t love the horse — they wanted to breeeeeeed him. If they had to keep a miserable crippled animal to do so, oh well! Unfortunately for them a TB racehorse must be registered w/the Jockey Club and therefore must physically cover the mare. No insemination allowed and Barbaro would never be strong enough to mount a mare with only one good hind leg. His owners are expecting his full brother to be foaled this year but they wanted a derby winner to breed regardless of stress and agonizing pain to be endured. On the best possible day, what kind of a life would Barbaro have lived? The owners should be ashamed.
January 30, 2007 at 2:26 am