While I believe that people should watch out for one another…

and help out when someone or something needs help, I also believe that people should mind their own business when they don’t know what they are talking about.

Two athletes got hurt this week. One got hurt bad enough to end her life. If these weren’t highly trained athletes that had been conditioned to be able to handle their sport, I’d say these were avoidable injuries. BUT these athletes got hurt just like others get hurt. Just like basketball players, gymnasts and runners get hurt. The only problem here is, human athletes can get hurt and go lay on their backside or front or side or upside freaking down if need be, and not die from it. Equine athletes can NOT lay down after an injury and recover. It would kill them. They can not put all their weight on anything less than all feet, or they risk laminitis setting in. Equine athletes are not built like we are. Period.

Some people claim that horse racing is barbaric. And I’m not going to say it’s not a bit warped to have horses run like mad for a mile and then give money to who ever guessed the winner. I have only bet once in my entire life. It was $2 on Hug A Slew at the Meadowlands in New Jersey a long time ago. I vaguely remember her not finishing the race or coming in like 40 lengths behind the rest of the pack. I decided that betting was really a waste of time, I was there for the horses, pure and simple.

But, betting pays the bills for a lot of people. It provides an income for the track families. The jockeys, grooms, stablehands, trainers, owners, concession workers, betting window clerks…it’s income and it’s not going to go anywhere real soon.

What the naysayers and screaming whiney people don’t realize is… 1. they are bitching and not making a difference in an effective way. Which means they are wasting their time and getting in the way of real change by annoying the crap out of those who are doing something to make a difference and 2. They have no clue what really goes on. If they did, they’d not be bitching. If they cared enough to put some effort into it, they’d be making changes that are effective.

While making a difference in track surfaces, medication and schedules won’t bring back Eight Belles or make Chelokee’s leg heal magically overnight…it does keep this from happening in the future.
Screaming, pointing fingers and making blatantly incorrect comments about horse racing does no one any good, now or in the future.

I’m sure the loud opinionated jerks out there don’t know that Barbaro’s breakdown and then his death has contributed to more synthetic track surfaces being used (are they safer? that i don’t know but it seems that the people who know these things think so. I am guessing we will find out in time), to advancements in finding a cure for laminitis (which, by the way, effects horses AND cattle, not just race horses).

Here are articles and whole websites that outlines the incredible things that people have done in the name of Barbaro:

• article: Barbaro’s Legacy Continues
• article: Barbaro’s Legacy: Better Life for Horses
• article: Breyer Donates Portion of Sales to Barbaro Fund
• New Bolton Center: http://www.vet.upenn.edu/barbaro/index.html
• Tim Woolley Racing: http://www.timwoolleyracing.com
• New Jersey Equine Clinic: http://www.njequine.com
• National Thoroughbred Racing Association: http://ntra.com
• Breeders’ Cup: http://breederscup.com
• Angel Acres: http://www.angelacreshorsehavenrescue.com
• Fans of Barbaro: http://www.fansofbarbaro.com

That’s what I found listed on only THREE web pages (there were thousands to choose from) about the effects of ONE HORSE. One horse, people!!! He had no idea, but his spirit helped save other horses from becoming dog food, helped retired racehorses find new homes, and helped bring people together that when working alone were not very effective at making changes, but together were dynamite! His spirit inspired people to fight harder to beat their own cancer, bipolar disease and AIDS. His spirit made people who recognized a need to make a difference get up and push as hard as they could toward that goal of fighting injustice, inhumane treatment, and a disease that takes the life of horses whether they are a famous race horse or your Aunt Fanny’s pet horse that’s “too old to ride but keeps the lawn cut real nice”. While I would love nothing more than to see Barbaro off grazing at the Jackson’s farm right now, I know that he didn’t die without leaving his legacy to live on…to live on in a big way and make some big changes. So many people who are making a difference right now, would never have gotten together if that hadn’t happened.

So, you can sit there and blubber on about how horrible the sport is and do nothing about it (in other words be a really noisy annoying good for nothing)…or you can get educated about the problems (real education, not one you got reading the newspaper) and make changes that help everyone.
Bottom line? Shut up! OR Do Something About it!