Our hero Barbaro is choosing life over death. I am praying he’ll win for he deserves this victory more than any other in his remarkable career. 

He’s showing us by his determination that he prefers a long life to all those thousands of red roses, cheers, apples and peppermints.

Barbaro’s our trainer by teaching us about courage and grit. About how it’s OK to be vulnerable, just not a victim. And about overcoming the odds. 

In finding the courage to surrender, he has become an exemplary patient. It’s the same courage he used to trust his trainer, his owners and his jockey in his running days. The same trust that ended in his breakdown.

I’d be empathetic for Barbaro even if he didn’t have a will to live, but he is fighting so hard that I have to, too. I fight for the thousands of racehorses that have already broken down and been euthanized, and for those still racing that are expected to risk all, like Barbaro did. Many just as trusting and hard-working and loving as Barbaro.

Do you, too, react with delight when you read that Barbaro kicks leaves when he’s out grazing? He has stolen my heart a hundred times. I love picturing his bright eyes, his playful feet and his silky coat and hearing how he enjoys the sunshine, the freshly picked grass and the gentle breezes. I love to imagine him watching mares, and cows. And being feisty. That’s how he accepts his lot. That how he survives.

He’s my boy, your boy, our boy. He’s gathered us together like giddy kids. We are goofy that he is doing so well but we know we have to keep on pulling for him. His fight isn’t over.

So can’t we do as Barbaro does? Love life? Give life? He’s telling us life is worth fighting for. 

We have the power to give life but Barbaro can only accept what is, and he does it with magnificent bravery.

How can horse racing continue at this pace? It’s time to end this beautiful sport that disrespects life, to give life to horses in training and stop breeding. A sport that kills is not a sport. The cost is as great to us humans as it is to the horses because we are one.

It’s easy to say, “But wait! Barbaro loved running!” Sure he did! He’s a proven athlete and a champion.

But has anyone noticed that he’s an even greater champion now? Look what he’s accomplished by uniting us through his never-failing attempts to surmount what his running dealt him.

It wasn’t fair of his owners to ask that much of him. He deserved a better hand; one without a death card. Barbaro did nothing to deserve this race for his life yet in return he has rewarded his owners handsomely. And now he rewards us with his courage, spirit and tenacity. 

No other horse should have to endure what Barbaro has endured. And he is the lucky one. Each day Barbaro proves that choosing life is a valiant way of winning. He does so not because it’s the only way he has left to win but because it’s the best way.

In an unexpected turn of events, this is Barbaro’s time of true greatness.

Sometimes it takes tragedy for us to see all the richness, wonder, gentleness and sweetness that life offers us simply for the taking; simply through respect for its potential. If the industry of horse racing continues, more lives will be snuffed out, diminishing us all. 

Still, Barbaro’s full potential hasn’t yet been realized. He is causing us to look at horse racing differently. He’s showing us he needs and deserves compassion and respect, just as we do.

It’s going to take time but something is starting to happen. Don’t underestimate Barbaro. He’s a champion survivor and a leader. You know his record. Just wait and see. 

There will be folks who are so used to horses breaking down that they think life is expendable. They will say that laypeople don’t understand and that horse racing doesn’t have to go. But they are not using their imaginations. There could be something even greater for horses, something that isn’t costly.

Barbaro, through his will to live and his forgiveness, will convince those folks that respect for life leads to greater good than glory. To greater good than greed.

Barbaro’s race is my last. It hurts too much. Euthanasia of beautiful racehorses should not be the answer to man’s mistakes. ”They” say it is only practiced when necessary, of course. And yes, it is humane to end suffering. But prevention is more humane and prevention means no horse racing.

So while the new synthetic track seems to be a big improvement, it has already resulted as I write this in one horse being put down in California. Owners say it is only one compared to many. The way it used to be.

But one life is still too many.

Barbaro’s injury at the hands of horse racing proves how innocent animals lose their lives because they do what their owners and trainers ask. Because they have no vote.

Barbaro seems to be a stronger and more compassionate human than we humans, by some ironic twist.

Maybe it’s the timing that makes our pain greater. Perhaps his injury would not hurt us so deeply if we were not surrounded by so many brave men and women dying in war in Iraq. That didn’t have to be. The number of animals and homes lost in last week’s wildfires in California set by an arsonist didn’t have to be either. Our country is divided politically and the losses each of us feels are magnified.

Barbaro has the best care possible. Gretchen and Roy Jackson, Dr. Richardson and Michael Matz seem to be kind and generous people who are giving everything they possibly can to make him comfortable and to help him get well. No one wanted this awful event to happen. But it was always a possibility. I heard a quote on the track after his injury at the Preakness, “You never think these things are going to happen.” But how could anyone think that considering the number of injuries that do take place in California, New York, Kentucky, Maryland and Florida?

It did happen. It happened to our hero, the least likely, the greatest, our hope, our Barbaro.

Trainer Michael Matz said in the New York Daily News article today (11/01/06), “You don’t know why these things happen. Maybe there’s a bigger reason why it happened. He’s done a lot for the sport, and maybe more than just for the sport.”

I agree. Barbaro has done much for we faceless fans the world over who follow his progress on our computers in the wee hours of the morning, every morning. He gives us hope that spirit can heal, despite all.

But his injury and his horrendous fight didn’t have to be.

I have chatted with reporters, vets and Barbaro fans about the dangers of horse racing. I know I am not alone in my concern. I will not change my mind as long as one leg is subjected to breaking and one lung is subjected to filling with blood from being pushed too hard too early.

Our actions affect one another so widely today with the force of the media that we must act even more responsibly. Each of us, no matter what our business or calling. Not just horse racing. It’s not the media that is responsible for lives risked so freely. Nothing short of discontinuing breeding and racing can reduce such great risk on the track. 

Last June, I wrote a blog about Barbaro that was circulated by a forum member on Tim Woolley’s web site. Readers invited me to join the Barbaro fans who are writing congressmen and rescuing horses from slaughter on weekends. They told me Gretchen Jackson has worked hard on this issue and I know they receive inspiration from her. I applaud these efforts tremendously.

But it’s not enough. Horse racing is no less lethal. People who love animals could not subject them to injury and possible death unless they were elevating another ideal in the place of life. Barbaro’s misfortune brings anguish to us all. We are all connected as John Donne wrote hundreds of years ago, “No man is an Island.”

Barbaro’s story is not over. We are connected in our suffering and we all deserve life. When humans compete and risk injury and death, they do so willingly. Animals don’t have that choice.

Breeders and owners, you have that choice. You are parents to these beautiful creatures. You brought them into the world for pleasure, and for gain. But it is your gain, not theirs.

Horse racing is the status quo; it is a beautiful sport. But unlike other elegant sports - polo, sailing, and rowing – it maims and kills.

Team Barbaro, you have big hearts and great resources. You each have an opportunity to see that the tragedy of Barbaro doesn’t happen again. Please see how your actions affect all horses. Please consider how they affect the rest of us trying to make amends by praying and sending cards and fruit baskets. We can only put bandaids on such great tragedies. Please create other ways these magnificent animals can contribute to the community.

Barbaro removed our blinders. Let him remove yours, too. Let the future Barbaros in your stables live. By surrendering, you win like Barbaro.

Compassion leads to life. It is not found in gold trophies but in the quietest and most random of places: the space we give one another to be free.  And that is a gift that is priceless.