Cause and Effect of BARBARO

Elizabeth Zadel
Mrs. Boresen
1/29/09
Expository Writing, 4th
Cause and Effect Essay

BARBARO

On April 29, 2003 was when a great champion was born and one of the best race horses in this time era! He was a tall, bay (brown), quick, muscular, and very well mannered horse, his name is Barbaro. Barbaro captured America’s heart and made people love this sport even if you were not into horse racing or even into horses or animals. I have always been more into the horse showing and the rodeo part of horses, but Barbaro really caught my eye and now I really enjoy horse racing as well and have learned a lot of the past years. I wish that one day I could visit the Kentucky Derby and see these magnificent horses up close. Maybe even one day own and get to train a great horse like Barbaro! Everyone may just think that this is going to be another horse story but really it is a lot more then just some horse story, it is a great story that will teach any one about never giving up!

Race horses are usually very hipper, aggressive and always on the go. However Barbaro was really a gentle giant. Never got aggressive, always calm, listen to the trainers, and could be your companion. He inherited this from his mom. He reminded me of good old Seabiscuit, he was also a lot like this always sleeping, clam, and well mannered. Barbaro’s owners were Roy and Gretchen Jackson, an older couple who have been in the race world for a long time. Barbaro went to different trainers when he was young for basic training but then he went to Michael Matz, and assistant trainer Peter Brette at Lael Stables, were he permanently stayed. The first time he was in a race it was October 4, 2005, he was only two years old, this race was on turf and they decide to go with turf because his mom La Ville Rouge was a Champion on turf and his dad Dynaformer which was a excellent sire for turf horses. The race was at Delaware Park were he won it like it was nothing and his next two races were on turf were he won them as well. They decide to try him on dirt since he was doing so well on turf and his first race was February 4, 2006 at Gulfstream Park and the race was called The Holy Bull Stakes and yes again he won it. He won another race on dirt before one of the biggest races in his life and in history, The Kentucky Derby. The Kentucky Derby is the first leg of the Triple Crown races. The Triple Crown consists of three prestige’s races, first it’s the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and then the Belmont Stakes. Each race getting longer and harder and the horses can only be three years old. If you win all three you have won the Triple Crown. There has not been a horse to win The Triple Crown in twenty-eight years during 2006. In horse racing this is like the Super Bowl, if you win this you really and truly have a world champion race horse and the horse is honored and remembered for many many years!!!

Barbaro had something about him that made him great just by looking at him. The trainers or his jockey said they never had to push Barbaro he just knew and did it himself; he had so much power and heart in him. Bill Sanborn said “We knew he had class, and we knew he had some talent. A Derby horse? No, nobody had any idea of that.” (Barbaro, pg 9.)The Kentucky Derby was on May 6, 2006, always the first Saturday of May, at Churchill Downs. Barbaro was in gate eight, which is a pretty good start, but starting eighth out of twenty of some of the best horses. All racing to stand in the winners circle, with the bed of roses around the horses neck, and saying your horse has one the Kentucky Derby and may even go on to win the triple crown is something truly phenomenal. He had a little stumble at the start but from then on he went sailing he made it look so effort less and at the final turn Edgar Prado, his jockey, and Barbaro went flying around the turn and straight for home and they won it by six and half lengths the biggest length won in the Kentucky Derby since sixty years, sixty! Edgar said after that Barbaro felt like he had more in him that this race was nothing and that is what it looked like, effortless. Peter Brette said after the Derby while looking at Barbaro “He’s so, so talented. So talented,” “And the best is yet to come.” (Barbaro, pg 107). They knew after that that yes they did have a Kentucky Derby winner and know they may have even more, a Triple Crown winner!!!

The second leg of the race, The Preakness, this was held at Pimlico on May 20, 2006 in Maryland. Barbaro was number six in the gate line up, but once they got in and before the gun went off Barbaro broke through the gate and when any horse brakes through the gate they know something is wrong and most likely they are not going to win. So Edgar brought him back around and the vets looked at him and made sure that everything was ok, because Barbaro had never done this before, but everything was fine. So they got back in the gate and off they went but you did not see Barbaro up in the front were you usually did or in the middle you saw him going from the middle back to the back. Barbaro was trying to stop and steady himself on three legs, this was just a little way from coming out of the gates and Edgar pulled him up and jumped off as quickly as possible to see what had happened. Michel and Peter the trainers ran down to the track as fast as they could. He couldn’t walk on his right back leg; he was trying to stay stable on three legs. The horse ambulance and the vets came right away. In all of this how do you think Barbaro was, calm just like always. Peter was holding him while everyone was trying to help Barbaro out. They said that Barbaro knew they were trying to help him so that is why he was just standing still. In the horse racing world when a blue tarp is pulled out that usually means that they are going to euthanize the horse on the spot because it would be to painful for the horse to go on or there was nothing they could do for the horse. When they brought this blue tarp out the crowd stared yell not to do this and the owners and Michael would of not heard of it either. The vets put on a splint called a Kimzey splint to help support the leg so they could load him onto the ambulance. Everyone around the vets, Michael, Peter, the Jackson’s and the track volunteers helped Barbaro get onto the ambulance. When they got him in a stable hand man stayed in the back with him until they got him back to his stall. When they did the all of the media was there as well. The vets took x-rays in his stall, stall number forty which is were all the Kentucky Derby winners stay in at the Pimlico. One of the vets, Dreyfus, came out and told Michael that it was as bad as it could be and he needed internal fixation and the only person that could do this was Dr. Dean Richardson at New Bolton Center in Pennsylvania. So they loaded Barbaro back into the trailer and started to The New Bolton Center. He got a police escort all the way there, but on the way on bridges and the side of the roads there were people that had already made signs that said good luck Barbaro and God Bless Barbaro.

Barbaro had shattered three bones in his right hind leg. He had surgery for five plus hours putting in compression plates and twenty seven screws. They put him in a huge cast that went almost all the way up his leg. After this he had many many more surgeries to replace the screws and bandages. Through all of this his appetite and manor was very good, calm as could be. Just when it looked like everything was going good with his right leg then his left leg started to suffer from serve laminitis, which is can be caused from to much weight on one leg, even though they kept Barbaro in a huge sling that held his whole body so he wasn’t on any of his legs for some of the time in the day, still he formed laminitis. Laminitis is when the coffin bone sinks or rotates away from the hoof wall. Think of it like you putting a lot of pressure on your thumb but your thumbnail is separating from your thumb. Barbaro fought and fought as long as he could with a great attitude, nothing bothered him through the whole thing, he was just him self. The morning of April 29, 2007 was the only morning that Barbaro started to show signs that he was in pain. The Jackson’s came over and decided that they did not want there Champion to be in pain any longer. They said their goodbyes and said that there he was just eating his hay, happy as always. They vets euthanized him that day.

No one is quite sure the cause of Barbaro’s injures some say it might have been the track. Others say that it had something to do with when he ran out of the starting gates. Some say that these race horses are so powerful that they can push so hard that they really just hurt themselves and in Barbabro’s case that is what they think he did, he was trying so hard that he shattered his bones.

The effect that Barbaro had on people in general was extremely huge. They say that Barbaro is the horse who captured America’s heart. Even if you were not a racing fan, he would have made you want to be one, maybe not for the racing side but more for what he taught everyone on how to never give up and try you’re hardest until the end. It effected racing history about how everyone looks at theses big stake races and especially the Preakness Race now. Of course it affected the Jacksons, the trainers, the vets and most of all his fans.

Even if you don’t like horse racing I hope you got something out of this, that to never give and always try you’re hardest in life. Barbaro won all of his races up to the last one when the terrible incident happened and even after this he still was fighting but instead of fighting to win another race or almost breaking a track record, he was fighting for his life. I truly think that Barbaro could have gone on and one The Triple Crown, but what he accomplished and what he came to prove and to show everyone his great passion for this sport, was just as good as winning The Triple Crown because Barbaro had a great mind, true passion, and was truly a magnificent horse but most of all he had heart!!!!



BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. The Associated Press. "Barbaro has cast replaced on shattered leg." USAToday. .

2.Clancy, Sean. BARBARO. Lexington: Blood Horse Publications, KY.

3.Shulman, Lenny. "National Treasure." The Blood Horse 3 Feb. 2007: 730-32.

WINTER NARRATIVE

Elizabeth Zadel
Mrs. Boresen
Expository Writing
Winter Break
1/13/09

Las Vegas!!!!!!!!
My winter break all started when Leah and I put or imaginations together. We always wanted to go to the Nationals Finals Rodeo which is in Vegas, but we never thought of just going to Vegas. Well Leah thought about going to the NFR for her sixteenth birthday. So who do you think we approached about wanting to take a trip to Vegas, our parents, no of course not, my crazy and hilarious Grandma. My grandma loves Vegas and so when we told her are plan to go to Vegas, I don’t think she even had to think about it and she was sold!!! My mom and dad were ok with it to though; I just felt bad going with out my whole family but my mom, dad, Little George, and Kayla stayed to run the flower store and my mom said that was ok and that next time we could all go.
It started out just being Leah, my grandma and me, but then we talked my Aunt Country into coming with us to the crazy city of Las Vegas!!! We went back and forth from driving to flying, but we finally decided that driving would be a fun experience and I knew that it would be one funny trip driving with my family in the car for seven hundred and some miles. Then before I knew it my grandma had the hotel all figured out for us. Next we were trying to figure out which way to go since it was winter and how bad the roads were going to be, but we went through the Loveland pass and it wasn’t to bad. Coming home was the real fun part.
So it was a couple days after Christmas and we were all ready to go. Grandma came to are house to pick us up and we said goodbye to our family and then my mom drove us down to meet my Aunt and then my mom drove her car back home. We were finally heading off to Vegas.
We were suppose to get there around 9:00 or 10:00 pm because of all are stops for gas and food, but that all changed because of my crazy grandma. When we go into Utah the scenery was really neat and beautiful to see and so I said that we should stop and take a picture on the side of the road like they do on TV, so we did, we took several pictures and of course we were laughing the whole time about different crazy things. Then we got back in and started on are way again. When we stop at the gas station, usually I fill the gas up and grandma and Leah go and get us some more water for us but this time my grandma was trying to find her credit card to give to me to fill up the car but she couldn’t find it. We looked every were for her credit card, her purse, in the car, outside the car, but the only thing we could think of is that she dropped it when we stopped on the side of the road to take that picture. Oh boy all we could really do is laugh. So yes we drove back to are little picture spot which was about forty-five minutes away, and now it was dark out so we had the flash light out on the side of the road in the middle of the night looking for grandmas credit card. Only my family would be doing something like this and I can’t tell you how much I love them for crazy things like this. Well we couldn’t find it so we got back in the car and started heading for Vegas once again.
Midnight is when we pulled into Vegas and coming in was really a sight to see because of all the lights that look like they go for miles and all the big hotels all in one little spot with there different themes. We pulled up to The Bellagio Hotel and I was so excited because I thought we were staying at the Merge but my family changed it because they new that we really wanted to stay at the Bellagio. Everyone was so nice and polite there helping us with everything. When we walked it was like a dream it was so big and colorful for Christmas, very ritzy looking. I was in shock, I felt very very lucky to be there. We had to walk through the casino part to get to the elevators and the hotel was huge itself but then the casino was another whole big part as well, you could get lost!!! It was so packed that night and to see everyone playing like you see on TV was neat to see in real life and to see my grandma’s favorite the slot machines was also really neat to. The room was just as surprising as walking in to the hotel it was big and very nice with a good view also. We finally got to bed around 1:00 in the morning, but we didn’t care what time it was, we were in Vegas and we had so much fun that day and we were so lucky to see all this and to stay at the Bellagio. Well I should say everyone except my grandma went to bed she just had to go down and play those slot machines, she told us oh I will only go down for about 15 min, we knew it was going to be much longer, I love my grandma.
The next morning we all got up right away around 6:00 I don’t know why, we thought we would be tired from the day before. However how we were woken up by another funny story because my grandma was telling my aunt how someone came up to her at the slot machines and was telling her that, oh my cousin made this machine over here and I know its going to hit, just come over here and try it and the whole time I was listening I was praying that she didn’t go over to that machine, but she did and it hit but he got the money and gave her $75 and kept the rest but he wouldn’t tell her how much she had won. He just kept saying I gave you your $75, because that’s how much she put in to begin with, and then he walked off. We couldn’t believe what she was saying we told her she should have woke us and told us but it was 3:00 and she didn’t want to wake us. She reported it to the casino though, but she was just so tired and confused when that guy was telling her to come and play that machine and we felt so bad for poor grams. So now we joke that we are going to have to watch her instead of worry about Leah and I.
Another funny story was my grandma went to go and check her points at the casino they needed to see her driver’s license so she pulls it out and you would not guess what was behind her driver’s license that darn credit card. When she was telling us we almost fell over, she said that she almost didn’t want to tell us and again all we could do was laugh about it!!!
Las Vegas was so neat to see going inside all the different hotels and seeing there themes and how it’s all decorated for Christmas. The hotels are so big with the actual hotel, the casino and then they each have a little mall and hotel gift shops every where. There was always something to do, one night we say a Cirques O lay show called Ka which was really interesting to see. We were so busy that we never got to swim but we felt the water and it was really warm, that is one of my regrets is that we didn’t make time to swim. The pool area was so neat with several different pools and all the greens, flowers and the different tiling on the bottom of the pools. Also eating at all these different places that were so delicious, there were so many different types of restaurants to eat at. We did so much there it was a lot to take in but it was really something to see and a lot of fun especially with my family.
What made my winter break fun was getting to spend it with my family and going to such an extraordinary place like Vegas. I know some people when they think of Vegas you think of gambling and maybe not being fun, but it is really interesting to see and a lot of fun to. I really enjoyed the car ride seeing the scenery, all the different hotels, different sites and the places to go and the restaurants, but I really am thankful to have gone on this vacation and have such a wonderful time and of course to spend it with my crazy family and that I am so glad that we are because if we were just normal are vacations would not be as hilarious and adventures as they are!!!!!!!!!!!