Barbaro walks outside his stall
Now here’s some good news, finally, that we all (most of us anyway) have been looking for.
How’s this for a breath of fresh air? Barbaro is enjoying daily outings outside his intensive care stall to pick his own grass, enjoy the warm weather and stretch his recovering legs.
Barbaro stepped outside his ICU stall and started daily walks on a grassy area near the unit last week for the first time since having catastrophic injuries in the Preakness nearly three months ago. The Kentucky Derby winner, also recovering from a severe case of laminitis on his left hoof, continues to show signs he’s on the road to recovery.
Ponder, if you would, this news. Although the flowers, cards, and get-well wishes have dwindled in recent weeks, a simple horse, Barbaro, continues to captivate world-wide attention. At a simple level, the interpretation is easy — that there is a simple “courage facing adversity” story, which is not political and free of the dreary equivocations which invade all human dynamics. But the story is yet more profound. In horses, humans find the grace and dignity that they seek in themselves and their peers, but which are so often lacking.
Horses willingly serve humanity, not because they are coerced, but because they agree to do so, and receive benefits in return. People — even “non-horse people” — get this, and admire the traits which are so selfless and noble, and which are found but occasionally in people, but often in horses. “In vino, veritas” may have stood the test of time, but we propose a corollary — “in equus, veritas“.