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A tribute to Barbaro

Have you ever known a horse? I don’t mean owned, or rode or had a friend who had…I mean KNOWN.

Ever lie in the grass underneath his massive body on a warm, lazy afternoon with his heavy hooves at your ear as his huge head grabbed the grass around you, knowing that he’d never step on you or startle onto you?

Ever placed your nose into his mane to suck in the warmth of life and earth as he nibbled at your hair? Ever pressed your cheek against his silken muzzle, kissed his lips or rubbed your fingers along his raised veins under glistening sweat after a gallop’s end? Have you ever caressed the softness of his muscled butt or ran your hands around his complex but fragile leg bones?

Have you ever had that large crystal eye look into you and speak with unuttered words or had one run his blood out for you only to later wrap his neck around your shoulder and hug you in thanks for the thrill of competing?

Have you ever had your heart flutter when he understood your body language or you understood his?

I have and I did. I spent the day among them….with mine in the morning, with G’s in the afternoon at a jumper show, barefoot with the mares at the pond before dinner and finally, by the tv, at the Preakness. It is with tears in my eyes as I wonder at the heart of Barbaro that exploded just to do what he was born to do…who broke through the huge magnets that momentarily sustained him with such force as to shatter his own bones. Make no mistake about it; he splintered his ankle in that effort. Despite the resulting pain, with the heart of a Champion, he willingly, anxiously went back to try again…Have you ever KNOWN a horse?