Liberal Talk Radio

The brave horse will be in everyone’s minds at this weekend’s Kentucky Derby. Barbaro’s vet reflects on the sad story:

It has been nearly a year since [Dr. Dean W.] Richardson watched the Preakness on a six-inch television while performing veterinary surgery near West Palm Beach, Fla., and saw Barbaro take a dreadful, shattering misstep early in the race. In an interview Tuesday, Richardson reflected on his treatment of the colt here at the New Bolton Center; on Barbaro’s greatness and spirit; and on the public outpouring for the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner, who was euthanized in January after a remarkable attempt to save his life.

“From a purely surgical perspective, it was extremely unsatisfying because he didn’t make it,” Richardson, 53, said of Barbaro. “Professionally, I think we did the best we could. I’m not at all embarrassed by anything that was done. Personally, I’m very sad that we didn’t save him. As a horseman, as someone who really wanted to save the horse, it’s extremely dissatisfying.”

. . .

About $1.3 million has also been donated to the Barbaro Fund at the New Bolton Center, and another $300,000 to a laminitis fund, Richardson said. While an anonymous donor seeded the Barbaro Fund, both funds have received many donations from the public in amounts of $5, $10 or $50, Richardson said.

Explaining his theory for such affection for Barbaro, he said: “Mine would simply be people recognizing greatness and that he was an untarnished hero. Here’s a heroic athlete, cut down in his prime, one of the best, and he’s completely unblemished. How could you ascribe any bad behavior or motives to Barbaro? And when you have a totally unblemished vessel, it can be filled with all kinds of emotions and ideals. All the good things they’d like to have in people, they could see in Barbaro.”

He was as remarkable a patient as he was an athlete, Richardson said. Some injured horses can be difficult in everything from being placed in a sling to having bandages changed, he said. “Barbaro always seemed to understand, for the most part, that we were trying to help him,” he said.

Some have used the word courage to describe Barbaro’s fight to stay alive. Some used dignity. Richardson prefers class, with its suggestions of personality and intelligence. Previously, he said, he had treated horses that seemed to give up. They stopped eating or became disinterested in life much earlier than Barbaro did. Barbaro was different. Until the end, when he became anxious and frustrated, he kept his ears up, ate vigorously, came when he was called.

“Great horses,” Richardson said. “They act like they belong.”