BEAUTIFUL BARBARO - Destined to become a Unicorn!

Some animals capture my heart...actually LOTS of animals capture my heart. But one of the standouts was Barbaro. Everyone loves a winner and everyone loves to root for the underdog (or I should say: "Under Horse!") Barbaro was both of those.

Barbaro was born on April 29, 2003. He was bred and owned by Gretchen and Roy Jackson at Lael Stables in West Grove, Pennsylvania. He was only the 6th undefeated horse to win the Kentucky Derby when he bested the field of 20 by six and a half lengths in the 2006 running of the roses. However, tragedy struck just 2 weeks later at the running of the Preakness. Barbaro broke through the starting gate prematurely. But the second start appeared fine. Within a short distance, right in front of the grandstand, Barbaro shattered his right hind leg in more than 20 places.

Dr. Dean Richardson at Univ. of Penn's New Bolton Center performed a difficult five hour surgery the next day. He fused the fetlock and pasturn joints by attaching a steel plate with 27 screws. Barbaro was then put in the recovery pool (see my post on Ruffian from January 5th) and Barbaro woke up calmly.

At first, all looked good. But by the 1st week in July, complications arose. Horses are designed to support their weight on all four feet. When one foot is injured, the horse tends to protect that foot by carrying more weight on the companion leg. When too much weight is shifted to the other foot for too long, Laminitis can develop. Laminitis is the inflammation of the Laminae in the hoof. Abscesses can then form which will leak out the white band on the sole of the hoof or out the coronary band at the top of the hoof. The swelling can pull the bones in the hoof away from the wall. This is, obviously, very painful.

Five more surgery's were undertaken to help this. 80% of Barbaro's left hoof was removed. It was unknown just how much would grow back. Now both hind legs were in casts! He was put in a supporting sling for hours at a time to help relieve the pressure and pain. His condition went up and down for the next few months. Thousands of cards, flowers and gifts arrived at his stall wishing him well. I remember well the press conference on Dec. 13th when his vets said he was doing well. Then Laminitis developed in both front feet. The owners and the vets decided there was nothing more they could do and had to put Barbaro down on January 29, 2007. I was so sad that day.

Barabo was cremated and buried in front of Churchill Downs. A bronze sculpture was created by Alexa King and was unveiled in front of Churchill Downs on April 26, 2009.

In his honor, Beanie Babies and Breyer both made horses in their respective mediums. Three scholarships were established for Vet students at the University of Florida. (I don't know the connection there...maybe one of the Jacksons went there...it is in "Jacksonville" you know!) Books have been written about him and in 2007 Universal Studios announced that they would be making a film about him titled: "Gone Like the Wind." It has been shelved, however.

For readers of Behind The Mist, Kit is an appaloosa mare, the Alpha Mare of the herd of trail horses in Rocky Mountain National Park. However, in real life, Kit is my beautiful, bay, thoroughbred gelding with a white star on his forehead...just like Barbaro!

Send me the story of your Noble and Great horse. He or she probably never won a race...just your heart! You can reach me at:

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BLACK JACK - Earned his Unicorn horn in the Army

November 22, 1963. That morning is seared in my memory like a brand on a horse's haunches. I was sitting in Mr. Lomax's music appreciation class at Lake Oswego Junior High School. It was a windowless room made of cement bricks that had been painted a pastel color, probably blue. Mr. Lomax was desperately trying to get a group of seventh graders to understand some aspect of music theory, a subject that I wouldn't appreciate until I was thirty, when a voice came over the intercom and interrupted, permanently, Mr. Lomax's lecture. President John F. Kennedy had been shot. A few other events are equally embedded in my memory: my marriage, the birth of my children and historical events like the first moon walk, 9/11, and today's anniversary...the Columbine shootings (we Coloradoans really remember that day!) But surprisingly few. If you weren't alive at that time, you probably can't envision what it was like. The media had made us believe that we were living in Camelot with King Arther (or, perhaps Lancelot) at our lead. It was like looking in a mirror and having it suddenly shatter before your face. I remember watching the funeral on our black and white T.V. I remember seeing a lovely, lean black horse being led down the crowd-lined avenue, riderless with riding boots placed in the stirrups...backwards.

(Photo taken by Ron Williams from the Arlington National Cemetary Website.)

I want to share with you what I found out about this horse. His name was Black Jack. He was named for the General of the Armies: John "Black Jack" Pershing. He was foaled on January 19, 1947 and became the last of the Quartermaster - issue horses. He entered the 3rd U.S. Infantry Stables at Ft. Myer on September 22, 1953. He was given the last Quartermaster brand on the left shoulder and the army serial number 2V56 on the left side of his neck. Black Jack served a long and honorable army career, including participating in the funerals of President Kennedy in 1963, President Hoover in 1964, President L. Johnson in 1964 and Five Star General Douglas MacArthur in 1964. When a riderless horse is led in a funeral procession he is called a "Caparisoned Horse." He is the symbol of a warrior who would ride no more. Apparently the tradition started with Genghis Khan. The draping on the horse, including the backward boots are part of the tradition. Black Jack died on February 6, 1976. His remains were laid to rest in a plot at Fort Myer, Virginia. He joined Comanche as the only other horse buried with full military honors. In the horse fantasy story, Behind the Mist, it is the noble and great horses that are chosen to become Unicorns once they enter animal heaven. If they complete their training, they are inducted into the prestigious Legion of the Unicorn. I, hereby, nominate Black Jack, the last Army horse, to the Legion of the Unicorn!

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BLACK BEAUTY - The fictional horse that still deserves to become a Unicorn

ANTHROPOMORPHISM! How many of you know the meaning of that word? It means to attribute human characteristics to an animal or a thing. That is what I did in Behind the Mist, although I really believe that horses and animals have those characteristics if we would just pay better attention to them! But, I digress. Anyway, one of my favorite books, and I'm sure yours too, that used this technique was Black Beauty. This wonderful book broke new literary ground when it was written in first-person, or I should say "first-Horse," from the horse's point of view. The author, Anna Sewell wrote the novel, not intended for children by the way, in the last years of her life. She wrote it as a bed ridden invalid between the years, 1871 and 1877. It was published in 1877 and became an immediate success. It has since become one of the best-selling books of all time having sold over 50 Million copies! Anna died just five months later but lived long enough to see it become popular. Anna lived in England. At the age of just fourteen, she fell while walking home from school in the rain and injured both her ankles. This left her crippled for the rest of her life. As a result of not being able to walk or stand for very long, she became dependent upon horse-drawn transportation. Black Beauty tells the heart warming and heart-breaking story of a beautiful Black horse while following him from one home and owner to the next. Some of these owners were kind, loving and knowledgable, others were not, especially the taxi driver! Regardless of the circumstances, Black Beauty always put forth his best effort...a lesson for all of us! It has been said that this book lead to the formation of several societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals..."Humane Societies." There is a very happy ending which I won't spoil just incase you are one of the few people who hasn't YET read it! Black Beauty was made into several movies, cartoons and a T.V. series. I hereby nominate Black Beauty to the Legion of the Unicorn and give Anna Sewell flight as a Unicorn Rider!

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NOBLE FLAIR - A Fancy Future Unicorn

I started taking riding lessons on a weekly basis as an eight year old at the Portland Riding Club in Portland, Oregon. Soon, thereafter, I switched stables to Highlands Hunt Club located by the Portland Zoo. Sadly, it isn't there any more. Anyway, my trainer was named Johnny Johnson and I rode under his tutelage until he got married and moved up to Seattle. At that time, another man named Gary began training there and changed the stable from a hunter/jumper barn to a saddle seat barn. I have vivid memories of gazing over the stall doors at his horses in all their artificial braces for necks and tails and their long, weighted hooves. It made me very sad to look in their hollow eyes. One of the things that attracks me to Dressage is the emphasis on working with the horse's natural movement and biomechanics. Very little artificial equipment is used by most trainers. (We could get into a discussion about "Rollkur" at this point but I won't.) However, with all of that said, I am sure that the training techniques for Saddle Seat and Park Harness showing have improved. I want to tell you about one of the most famous Park Harness horses. He was a Morgan Stallion by the name of Noble Flair. Noble Flair was foaled in 1984. He was sired by Noble Command out of Lost River. He was bred by Bob and Judy Whitney. This beautiful horse with obvious potential was purchased as a yearling by Herbert V. Kohler of Kohler Stables and lived there for the rest of his life. Noble Flair won numerous world Championships in Park Harness Driving. His first big win was in 1986 when he was the champion two year old Park Harness driving horse. His three time world championships in 1988, 1989 and 1991 are unprecidented. Noble Flair retired from showing in 1991 and became an outstanding stud. PARK HARNESS DRIVING: This is something that I know VERY little about. I do know that the horses are judged on action and animation. They are shown at the park walk, park trot and "Show Your Horse" which is the show-off time where you want an even more active trot without excessive speed. The horses are driven to a four wheel buggy. The following video shows the 1986 championships but not the 2 year olds so I don't have a video of Noble Flair but you can see what goes on at a show. Noble Flair is surely one of the Noble and Great horses that will become a unicorn in the animal heaven. I can just see him prancing across the fields of Celestia with the other unicorns galloping beside him. Read about the unicorns in "Behind The Mist," the horse lover's fantasy story for teens and adults alike!

Tell me the story of your Noble and Great horse! He doesn't have to be famous, just loved! Write to me at my email:

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SEABISCUIT - looks down from Animal Heaven

With an informative book and movie out about Seabiscuit, you undoubtedly know a lot about this amazing horse and his story. Horse stories are wonderful, especially when they are true! As you watched the end of the video about the match race at Pimlico did you notice the jockey, The Iceman, on Seabisuit turn back after he crossed the finish line and yell something to War Admiral's jockey? I wish I knew what he said! When the two horses were head to head, Woolf said, "So Long, Charlie!" and Seabiscuit took off. Let me back "track" and give you some background on this famous horse: Seabiscuit was born on May 23, 1933. He was the son of Hard Tack and the grandson of Man 'O War. His name came from his father's, both of which stand for the crackers eaten by sailors. He grew up on Clairborne Farms in Paris, Kentucky and was owned by Gladys Mills Phipps. He had a rather inauspicious start in life. He was small and knobby kneed and his only desire in life was to eat and sleep. (Party Hardy in the second book of The Mist Trilogy: Mists of Darkness is like that!) He failed to win his first ten races. As a two year old he was raced 35 times. (Readers of this blog know how I feel about that!) Even with such a hard race schedule, he managed to still win five times and come in second seven times. In the great scheme of things, that is very good. However, he didn't catch any one's eye. Three of those races were "claiming" races where he could have been purchased for $2,500. No one claimed him. Seabiscuit was sold as a three year old to auto entrepreneur, Charles S. Howard for $8,000 who saw something in the awkward, lazy colt that he liked. He hired washed-up and unconventional trailer, Tom Smith. Smith, in turn hired Canadian Jockey, Red Pollard. Their formula worked for Seabiscuit. His fame spread as he began winning races under ever increasing amounts of weight. In 1937, Seabiscuit was the leading money winner, winning eleven out of fifteen races. That was also the year the beautiful War Admiral won the triple crown. (As I wrote The Mist Trilogy, I pictured the evil unicorn Hasbadana looking like War Admiral!) In 1938, Pollard was badly injured while racing another horse so his friend George Woolf, nicknamed the Iceman, was selected to ride the "Biscuit." Throughout 1937 and 1938, while the country suffered under the effects of the Great Depression, speculation was rampant about a match between Seabiscuit and War Admiral. While the west coast favored the Biscuit, the rest of the country put their money, if not their hearts, on War Admiral. The long anticipated "Match of The Century" was held on Nov. 1, 1938. The grandstands and infield were packed with 40,000 people while 40 million more listened over the radio. The video shows you the results of that race! Seabiscuit was named the 1938 "Horse of the Year" and the little brown colt became the national symbol of hope through hard work...something we need now! Not long thereafter, Seabisuit tore a suspensory ligament in a race. He and his friend, Red Pollard went to Charles Howard's ranch to recover together. Slowly, they both learned to walk and run again. Against all odds, Seabiscuit, with Pollard aboard, did race and win again. Their big comeback was in the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap where they walked away with the $121,000 purse. Seabiscuit was retired on April 10 and lived out his life at Ridgwood Ranch in Willits, CA. He received 500,000 visitors a year! A statue of Seabiscuit was erected at the ranch on June 23, 2007. Side note: There was an earlier movie about Seabiscuit filmed in 1949/50 titled "The Story of Seabiscuit" staring Shirley Temple! All of you Shirley Temple fans should check it out!

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ARKLE - Greatest Steeplechaser of all time

This blog is dedicated to the Noble and Great horses in our lives and throughout history. In Behind the Mist, the reader learns that these are the horses, that are chosen to become unicorns in the animal heaven. Behind the Mist is the fantasy for horse story lovers!



















Do any of you remember the movie, "National Velvet?" I LOVED that movie. It starred a teenaged Elizabeth Taylor and a very young Mickey Rooney. That was a wholesome, touching movie that really focused on horses as oppposed to some horse movies where the horses are just an after-thought. That was my first exposure to steeplechasing - races of various lengths that include jumps. This is a cool video with great horse clips from the movie.


Considered the greatest steeplechaser of all time, Arkle was a bay Thoroughbred Gelding born on the 19th of April, 1957. His father was Archive. His mother was Bright Cherry (I like that name!) He was bred at Ballymacdl Stud farm, near Naul, Dublin County, Ireland, by Mary Alison Baker. He was owned by Anne, Duchess of Westminster, trained by Tom Dreaper (who also trained his archrival) and ridden by Pat Taaffe.

Arkle had a strange quirk. When he jumped, he crossed his front legs. Even with that, he won 27 of his 35 starts at varying distances and often carrying lots of extra weight. In fact, the Irish Grand National racing authorities devised two different handicap weight systems: one for when Arkle wasn't racing and one for when he was!

Arkle was extremely successful during his short racing career. He won 3 Cheltenham Gold Cups in a row: 1964, 1965, and 1966, plus tons of other big races. In December of 1966, Arkle struck the guard rail at the open ditch while running in the King George VI Chase at Kempton Park. He broke the pedal bone in his hoof but finished the race anyway, coming in second. He spent the next 4 months in a cast but never raced again. His owner rode him for pleasure after that. (Called hacking.) Arkle was put down at the young age of 13.

Arkle was so famous and such a favorite in Ireland that the slogan "Arkle for President" was painted on a wall in Dublin. Everyone referred to him as "Himself" and fan mail was sent to him addressed simply as: "Himself, Ireland" and it would get there!

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BIG BEN - The Show Jumping Legend

This Blog is dedicated to the Noble and Great horses in our lives and throughout history. As you learn by reading Behind The Mist, the Noble and Great horses are chosen to become unicorns in the after-life.

This blog post is about the great Canadian Show Jumper: Big Ben

Big Ben was an enormous Belgian Warmblood. He was born on April 20, 1976 in Kalmthout, Belgium. He was originally named Winston after Winston Churchill. He grew to 17.3 hands. (A hand is 4 inches and is measured at the withers.) Winston was sold in 1983 for $2,000 to a farm in the Netherlands. His name was changed to Big Ben and his price tag became big as well. He was sold shortly thereafter for $45,000 as a mount for Canadian Equestrian, Ian Miller and moved to Miller Brooke Farm in Perth, Ontario, Canada.

In 1984, his remarkable show jumping career began. His list of accomplishments looks like a mobster's rap sheet it is so long! Just to name a few: He competed with the Canadian equestrian team 3 times. He won the World Cup Jumping Championship 2 years in a row: 1988 in Gothenburg, Sweden and 1989 in Tampa, Florida. His total winnings were over $1.5 Million!

In 1992, Big Ben survived a trailer accident that left two horses dead, a third too injured to ever be ridden again and a fourth too afraid to ever go in a trailer again. Not only did he survive, he went on the win a Grand Prix just two months later.

Hold on to your heart as you watch this video of him competing!




Big Ben was retired from competition in 1994 at the age of 18 after 11 years of competing. He spent his last days at the Miller Brooke Farm, where he is now buried. He was Euthanized after a serious bout of Colic on Dec. 11, 1999.

He is a Canandian Icon and even has a stamp made in his honor. Big Ben was inducted into the Ontario Sports Legend Hall of Fame and joined Northern Dancer as the only other horse to be inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame.

A beautiful statue has been erected in his honor along the banks of the Tay river in Perth. The life-sized statue was created by sculptor Stewart Smith and depicts Ben carrying Miller over a 5 and 1/2 foot jump.

You can read more about Big Ben in the book Big Ben by Lawrence Scanlan and in a chapter found in An Apple A Day submitted by his groom, Sandi Hill.

Read about the Legion of the Unicorn in Behind The Mist. You can purchase it here:

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