Barbaro Remembered

The following is from a wonderful blog post by Sarah Britten, entitled Falling Off. Writing from South Africa, she details her obsession with horses and how post-divorce, her mother told her, "Forget about men and get on the back of a horse."

Here is her take on why Barbaro influenced and inspired so many:

"Horses inspire love. Real, anguished love. When Barbaro, the beautiful unbeaten bay colt who won the 2007 Kentucky Derby, broke his leg and spent a year in rehabilitation, he inspired the kind of burning love that tightens the back of the throat and fills the chest. When he finally had to be put down, horse lovers across America wept, inconsolable. The Onion satirized the outpouring of grief, but certain special horses do seem to fulfill an urgent and particular national need, for every year the fans seek another Seabiscuit, another champion to love and cherish; another steed, one might say, to be the bearer of their dreams of what might be."

"Barbaro was a reminder that even the most dazzling of champions can die. In real life, horses are heartbreak. They break legs or succumb to colic. They are defeated. In the flesh, most of them do not embody what I imagine to be the nobility of courage, beauty and freedom. But even after all these years, I doodle them while I take notes in meetings and read the stories on American horseracing websites; I see hoofprints in the sand and I long to ride the animals that left them there. In this obsession, there’s a certain constancy (which is comforting)."

I think she has hit the nail on the head in a lot of respects--that continual search for a hero that inspires us every year to dream of a Triple Crown winner. As the calendar page turns and another year begins (in which all two year olds become three year olds on January 1), it's a good time to be reminded about the power of hope.