The Horse is dead....and I couldn't care less
It's finally over. All the drama, the emotional highs and lows. The prayers, the cards, the well wishes they can all finally end. No I'm not talking about the mourning for President Gerald Ford, but rather the mourning for the race horse Barbaro, this past year's Kentucky Derby Winner. The horse was put down on Monday after quite an ordeal.
In case you're not familiar with the horse that has gripped America, you can get all the dirty details here. The long and the short of it is this. He was a horse who ran in and won the Kentucky Derby (that's a big horse race....part of horse racing's triple crown). He ran as the favorite in the next leg of the triple crown (the Preakness) and then he broke his right hind leg in three places. Now if you're not all that familiar with horses, they don't do so well on the broken legs. You can't cast em up and tell em to stay off it, though I would love to see some one develop a wheelchair for a horse, just so time and money can be wasted on something that's completely unnecessary....kinda like when HBO kept bringing back Sex and the City.
Anyway, once a horse breaks his leg that's pretty much it for it. Back in the day, they brought the horse round back the barn and introduced him to the business end of a shot gun and that was that. Well, it's pretty much the same thing today, sans the shotgun and with a needle in it's place. They tried to save Barbaro, he went through multiple surgeries, spent time suspended in a harness with his legs in a pool so he wouldn't put pressure on the broken leg.
So that sets it up for ya, the whole deal with the horse and whatnot. Well after Barbaro broke his leg there was a giant outcry of public support. People made cards, sent flowers and held vigils; all for animal that couldn't read, would most likely rather eat flowers than smell them and unless he was a direct descendant of Clever Hans probably wouldn't have gotten the whole deal with the vigil. The outpouring was enormous, the updates on his condition were endless and quite honestly, I couldn't take it.
The way he was talked about made it seem like some sort of revered public official had taken some kind of ill or had passed away. There was sooooooo much time devoted to the condition of a horse that nearly no one had heard of before the derby that it made me want to scream. Well to make things even better, an internet message board came about for the horse, so nitwits could share sentiments worldwide.
I would like to point out in my defense I used the word nitwits when I couldn't think of a term that wasn't obscene and vulgar. It was like they were eulogizing a deity, it made my brain hurt. Before you get on my case about this, there were more postings other places and here's a sample posting after the horse was euthanized:
When I listened to Gretchens news conference tonight, near the end she asked us all to say a prayer for Barbaro. Which of course I have and will do. But it reminded me of something Jackie Kennedy asked the whole nation to do on the night that JFK was assassinated. She asked everyone to light a candle (electric) and put it in your window tonight to guide his spirit home. For some reason this gives me great comfort, as though I am able to do one last thing for Bobby. This is just a suggestion for anyone who would like to do it for Bobby. I want to know that he is over the Rainbow Bridge. -- 4Barbo
I don't want to seem like a passionless ass-hole (though I'm well aware that it may be too late for that) but did I just read that some one tied in how Jackie Kennedy asked the nation to stay strong after her husband was assassinated to do the same thing for a horse? Really? Seriously? And are they calling the horse "Bobby"? I didn't know he had a nickname, did you?
So what am I trying to say here? I'm saying it's a horse, get over it. Listen, the owners can be sad (especially since they just lost millions in stud fees), so can the trainer and the jockey and maybe some people in the tiny world of horse racing, but that should be it. OK, maybe I should say they can be sad and mourn and everyone else can be a little sad. Maybe for like a week, at most. Instead there are messages left like the one above and video tributes on YouTube.
Enough. Look, I'm not totally insensitive to this. I understand the power that sports has over people and the way it's figures draw us in and near. But we knew Barbaro for how long before things went wrong? A month or so? Where is all this outpouring coming from? He was a horse, right? He didn't talk like Mr. Ed as far as I know, so where is this all coming from?
Please don't think I dislike animals either, most of them are quite delicious. In fact I hope to be lucky enough to purchase the bottle of glue that Barbaro's hooves and bones become. OK, that was a little mean, I'll give you that. In all honesty, I love animals. I love hiking and coming across deer and beavers and all kinds of songbirds. I used to have more rabbits than I could count. We had fish, goats, chickens (thought I didn't care for them so much) and ducks.
My dad used to bring the animals he kept at school (he was a high school bio teacher) over the summer. I loved the tortoise we had, the hamsters and gerbils were cute and so were the mice. I even enjoyed the Madagascar hissing cockroaches we had (the tickled when they walked on you). I even loved my dog Barney who we had put down when I was young, even though he may have been the dumbest dog known to man.
Was I sad when we put our dog down, sure. Was it fun to go out to my rabbit hutch and see my last bunny not moving and then having to pull his body out of his hutch that was stiff from rigor? Not at all. Was I thrilled to see a one of our ducks' heads detached from it's body and the body in pieces after some kind of a bird of prey had gotten to. The answer there would be no. Was I despondent when we got rid of that last of our chickens? Not in the least....OK bad example, but you get the idea. When animals died that I had, I got upset, but it was for like a week, in the case of the rabbits it was like two. But that was it pure and simple.
I don't know how so many people felt a connection for a horse that they most likely had seen race only once. In fact, I didn't know that many people still cared about horse racing; which in all honesty is NASCAR for rich people that like their alcohol aged and overpriced instead of in cases thirty.
So in short, get over it everyone. He was a horse, he ran fast and he's finally gone. Put away the Kleenex boxes, stop sending home made cards and for the love of all that's holy please don't make any more tribute videos with Michael Bolton songs. Do something useful with your time. Go plant a tree, buy some canned goods and donate them to a soup kitchen, help and old lady cross the street. You know what, do whatever it is that you want, as long as it doesn't involve you mourning a horse named Barbaro.
In case you're not familiar with the horse that has gripped America, you can get all the dirty details here. The long and the short of it is this. He was a horse who ran in and won the Kentucky Derby (that's a big horse race....part of horse racing's triple crown). He ran as the favorite in the next leg of the triple crown (the Preakness) and then he broke his right hind leg in three places. Now if you're not all that familiar with horses, they don't do so well on the broken legs. You can't cast em up and tell em to stay off it, though I would love to see some one develop a wheelchair for a horse, just so time and money can be wasted on something that's completely unnecessary....kinda like when HBO kept bringing back Sex and the City.
Anyway, once a horse breaks his leg that's pretty much it for it. Back in the day, they brought the horse round back the barn and introduced him to the business end of a shot gun and that was that. Well, it's pretty much the same thing today, sans the shotgun and with a needle in it's place. They tried to save Barbaro, he went through multiple surgeries, spent time suspended in a harness with his legs in a pool so he wouldn't put pressure on the broken leg.
So that sets it up for ya, the whole deal with the horse and whatnot. Well after Barbaro broke his leg there was a giant outcry of public support. People made cards, sent flowers and held vigils; all for animal that couldn't read, would most likely rather eat flowers than smell them and unless he was a direct descendant of Clever Hans probably wouldn't have gotten the whole deal with the vigil. The outpouring was enormous, the updates on his condition were endless and quite honestly, I couldn't take it.
The way he was talked about made it seem like some sort of revered public official had taken some kind of ill or had passed away. There was sooooooo much time devoted to the condition of a horse that nearly no one had heard of before the derby that it made me want to scream. Well to make things even better, an internet message board came about for the horse, so nitwits could share sentiments worldwide.
I would like to point out in my defense I used the word nitwits when I couldn't think of a term that wasn't obscene and vulgar. It was like they were eulogizing a deity, it made my brain hurt. Before you get on my case about this, there were more postings other places and here's a sample posting after the horse was euthanized:
When I listened to Gretchens news conference tonight, near the end she asked us all to say a prayer for Barbaro. Which of course I have and will do. But it reminded me of something Jackie Kennedy asked the whole nation to do on the night that JFK was assassinated. She asked everyone to light a candle (electric) and put it in your window tonight to guide his spirit home. For some reason this gives me great comfort, as though I am able to do one last thing for Bobby. This is just a suggestion for anyone who would like to do it for Bobby. I want to know that he is over the Rainbow Bridge. -- 4Barbo
I don't want to seem like a passionless ass-hole (though I'm well aware that it may be too late for that) but did I just read that some one tied in how Jackie Kennedy asked the nation to stay strong after her husband was assassinated to do the same thing for a horse? Really? Seriously? And are they calling the horse "Bobby"? I didn't know he had a nickname, did you?
So what am I trying to say here? I'm saying it's a horse, get over it. Listen, the owners can be sad (especially since they just lost millions in stud fees), so can the trainer and the jockey and maybe some people in the tiny world of horse racing, but that should be it. OK, maybe I should say they can be sad and mourn and everyone else can be a little sad. Maybe for like a week, at most. Instead there are messages left like the one above and video tributes on YouTube.
Enough. Look, I'm not totally insensitive to this. I understand the power that sports has over people and the way it's figures draw us in and near. But we knew Barbaro for how long before things went wrong? A month or so? Where is all this outpouring coming from? He was a horse, right? He didn't talk like Mr. Ed as far as I know, so where is this all coming from?
Please don't think I dislike animals either, most of them are quite delicious. In fact I hope to be lucky enough to purchase the bottle of glue that Barbaro's hooves and bones become. OK, that was a little mean, I'll give you that. In all honesty, I love animals. I love hiking and coming across deer and beavers and all kinds of songbirds. I used to have more rabbits than I could count. We had fish, goats, chickens (thought I didn't care for them so much) and ducks.
My dad used to bring the animals he kept at school (he was a high school bio teacher) over the summer. I loved the tortoise we had, the hamsters and gerbils were cute and so were the mice. I even enjoyed the Madagascar hissing cockroaches we had (the tickled when they walked on you). I even loved my dog Barney who we had put down when I was young, even though he may have been the dumbest dog known to man.
Was I sad when we put our dog down, sure. Was it fun to go out to my rabbit hutch and see my last bunny not moving and then having to pull his body out of his hutch that was stiff from rigor? Not at all. Was I thrilled to see a one of our ducks' heads detached from it's body and the body in pieces after some kind of a bird of prey had gotten to. The answer there would be no. Was I despondent when we got rid of that last of our chickens? Not in the least....OK bad example, but you get the idea. When animals died that I had, I got upset, but it was for like a week, in the case of the rabbits it was like two. But that was it pure and simple.
I don't know how so many people felt a connection for a horse that they most likely had seen race only once. In fact, I didn't know that many people still cared about horse racing; which in all honesty is NASCAR for rich people that like their alcohol aged and overpriced instead of in cases thirty.
So in short, get over it everyone. He was a horse, he ran fast and he's finally gone. Put away the Kleenex boxes, stop sending home made cards and for the love of all that's holy please don't make any more tribute videos with Michael Bolton songs. Do something useful with your time. Go plant a tree, buy some canned goods and donate them to a soup kitchen, help and old lady cross the street. You know what, do whatever it is that you want, as long as it doesn't involve you mourning a horse named Barbaro.
posted by MC at 6:37 PM
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