Barbaro Euthanized after Battle to Recover from Preakness Fall
Horses are the only non-human species to which homo sapiens grant the title “athlete.” Dogs race and hunt with humans, but they are only “man’s best friend.” Cats are domesticated but no more than that. Cattle, sheep and pigs are food waiting to happen. Horses, though, have a special place in the history of man, and in the hearts of many. So when a colt named “Barbaro” fell at last year’s Preakness, his struggle to recover touched countless people who had never ridden a horse. His death on Monday, a medical decision by his vets and owners, cast more light on the way humans treat their animals better than their aged.
He won the Kentucky Derby by 6 ½ lengths (the biggest margin since 1946), and those who know horse flesh (a body of knowledge largely absent from these pages) believed he has the ability to win the Triple Crown. In trying for the second leg of that crown, he fell shattering three bones in his right hind leg. Five hours of surgery followed, then, weeks in a cast. He got stronger, but there were almost two dozen more operations ahead. There were pins in his legs. He was in a sling for a time to keep pressure off his legs, followed by an external brace.
These were extraordinary efforts to be sure. A plow horse would simply have been shot where he fell. Then again, a plow horse didn’t cost millions and couldn’t generate much for stud fees. Barbaro did and could. Whether his owners harvested any semen is uncertain, but it would be valuable in its own right. He was an investment worth the rehabilitation efforts.
Nonetheless, when he developed laminitis in both front feet recently, the financial considerations went out the window. The horse was in pain and was not likely to get any better. Dr. Dean Richardson, chief of surgery at the New Bolton Center, said, “I really didn’t think it was appropriate to continue treatment because the probability of getting better was so poor.” At 10.30 am on Monday, Barbaro was given a deliberate overdose of tranquilizers and went to sleep.
Roy Jackson, who owned Barbaro with his wife Gretchen, told the press after the shot had been administered, “We just reached a point where it was going to be difficult for him to go on without pain. It was the right decision, it was the right thing to do. We said all along if there was a situation where it would become more difficult for him, then it would be time.” Sadly, that is a decision that cannot be made for humans. Were Mr. or Mrs. Jackson in the same position as Barbaro, facing pain without end, and little chance for recovery, no one could provide them with the exit their horse received. Mr. Jackson was right, it was the right thing to do – for horses and for humans.
© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.
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