to save Barbaro, but later in the afternoon the decision was made to put Barbaro down. I think it was a good decision from his owners, the last weeks Barbaro really lost a lot of weight and his feet must have caused him pain.
We remembered the months that the vets at the University Clinic in Uppsala worked to save Grazia that got shipping disease on her way from Italy to Sweden, Charli also recalled how we spent the Christmas at the clinic hand feeding Grazia and trying to keep her spirits up. In the end we had also to make the decision to euthanise Grazia as she could not fight the pneumonia. The decision to put down a suffering horse is really the dark side of working with horses, having to explain it to your kids is even worse.

1. Portia02/01/2007 16:00:18

It is a hard decision to make and any of us who have owned more than a few horses have been in the position to make this hard decision. I am sad Barbaro will not be with us but I am relieved he will no longer suffer. I think it is hard for people to understand horses are different than us. Their main basis in life is to be able to move and if they can no longer do that comfortably and quickly it must be very frightening to them. Well that is my standing on this and I am normally not this depressing but it is something I feel strongly about. We should all take a moment of silence for such a great horse and be happy he graced us with his presence for a little while.

2. Jessica D.02/02/2007 10:20:32

He has a yearling FULL brother out there. He's not named yet though I hear...so there is hope. It is nice to know that he has a living relative around that we might get to see do what he hadn't been able to do...maybe win a triple crown....you never know ;)