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.