Barbaro's Legacy - My visit to New Bolton Center

Monday, January 28th 2008
UPENN New Bolton Center, Kennett Square Pennsylvania

On Monday morning my husband Paul, Dad, Kim and I arrived at New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, PA. Barbaro was euthanized on Monday, January 29th 2007. Today was one day before the calendar anniversary of his death. I chose this day the 28th specifically to present the donation to celebrate Barbaro's legacy he left one year ago on a Monday. So many good positive things have happened because of his life and the Fund to Fight Laminitis to me was one of the most important.

Lyn Gilbert was also invited to present a donation that the Fans of Barbaro had collected during a fundraising effort called the “Honoring Barbaro’s Life and Legacy Campaign.” Since Lyn lives in the area she offered to present the check on behalf of the FOB's who contributed.

When I made the arrangements for this event, my contact at UPENN, Kate Judge, instructed me to meet her in the lobby of New Bolton Center between 11:30am and 12:00pm. While waiting we enjoyed a little time chatting with Lyn Gilbert and she shared with us a book she wrote that is coming out next month. A lovely children's story and though there wasn't time to read the whole thing she shared with us what it was about. The illustrations were so excellent it was fun looking through them.

After a short time we were greeted by Jennifer Rench a Communications and Marketing Coordinator at UPENN. She escorted us into a conference room. Kate Judge arrived shortly after and they gave us each a packet of information to take home all about the UPENN vet school. I have to thank Kate for planning and organizing this entire event with me. She was so generous and enthusiastic about our trip out to Pennsylvania to give this money I felt really great after every conversation we had together. I thank her also for allowing me to bring my Dad and his wife along, that meant so much to me, and also for letting Lyn be included in on our plans with the other donation as well.

Dr Corinne Sweeney the Associate Dean and Hospital Director came into the room and gave us the warmest greeting. What an absolutely lovely kind woman and a gracious host she was!! I so enjoyed talking with her. I gave her a Barbaro- America's Champion ornament and she held it in her hands and told me she would treasure it always. At one point my Dad brought over the Barbaro limited edition prints I had brought with and said, "Excuse me, proud father, take a look at the image in a larger size. My daughter drew this with a pencil, and an eraser. Thats it!" I guess he's entitled to brag a bit about his daughter we get to see each other so rarely because we live so far apart. hehe.

We also got another visitor in the room. Libby, she is one of the employees at UPENN who takes care of 85% of all of the animals on the campus. She called them her "kids". She lives right there on the grounds and she told us she gets up at 2:00 AM every day to begin her work feeding and caring for them. It made me tired just to listen to all she does and she summed her life up beautifully saying, "Its not an easy life but its an honest one!" She has worked there for over 20 years. Here is a photo of her with one of the blood donor horses. He was a warmblood and as soon as I remember his name I'll edit this! He was absolutely beautiful!!

When she saw my portrait of Barbaro, (Dad had to show her... haha) she said she would like me to do a portrait of ALL of her "kids"! This would be probably 200 animals? We all laughed but I got the feeling she wasn't really joking. She would have loved that. We chatted with her for a long while and it was so fun to hear about her life and experiences.

Then Dr Richardson walked into the room. I tell you the entire room just lit up and there was a face I knew so well!! All of the photos and press conferences I had seen just flooded into my mind, and the life he shared with our beloved Barbaro walked into the room with him. It was all there and filled my head and my heart. I jumped to my feet to greet him and shook off the tears that wanted to come. I wanted to make sure this stayed a happy uplifting moment for him especially on this day. It was important to me to focus on the positive things that Barbaro began. Seeing Dr Richardson right in the room with me did bring back all of the memories. He had just come out of a surgery and greeted all of us very enthusiastically.

Jennifer and Kate explained to him who I was and when we mentioned the ornaments he said, "I know all about them I had one hanging on my Christmas tree this year." He looked at me and said, "You sent it to me." He shook hands with all of us and Lyn Gilbert brought him the check from the FOB fundraiser. They posed for photographs and then it was my turn. I had brought a mock check that I made on powerpoint. We stood together and everyone in the room took photos of us. I want to point out that on the check, there is a check number in the top corner just like a normal check would have. This check number however, number 561 was the exact number of ornaments that were sold and shipped out to people all over the US. Almost every single state in the US had an ornament sent to someone living there and several also went to Canada and the UK. I must take this time to thank all of the Fans of Barbaro and others who purchased ornaments knowing that profits from the sales would be going to the Fund to Fight Laminitis. Of course without all of you this moment would have never happened!!

I had also brought with me five Barbaro - America's Champion limited edition prints and Dr Richardson had previously confirmed he would be more then happy to autograph them! He sat down at the conference table and signed each one while I explained to him the specific numbers I chose from the edition.

1/150 (because it was the first of the edition.)
8/150 (8 was the number of Barbaro's saddle cloth in the Kentucky Derby)
28/150 (Today was the 28th of January)
29/150 (The 29th being the day of both Barbaro's birth and passing)
132/150 (Kentucky Derby 132)

Dr Richardson signed each one beautifully and asked me if I knew where or when I would be selling them. I explained that I had no immediate plans but I would be looking for fundraising opportunities where I could possibly donate one for a silent auction or something like that. I have written to the Jacksons and have offered one to them sometime in the future when they have one of the many fundraisers they've had with other Barbaro items. I will be looking for the right opportunities for these very special prints.

Lyn Gilbert gave Dr Richardson an essay that was written by an FOB to read at his leisure and he took the folder she gave it to him. He talked about a few of his current patients including one he had just worked on which was a tiny miniature appaloosa foal. We also talked about the significance of all of the donations made to the Fund to Fight Laminitis and I mentioned the other famous race horses who succumbed to the disease and he added, "not to mention the many many horses who have come through here. I worry about my own horses getting laminitis, it is a terrible disease and very difficult to treat medically." He thanked us again for our donations and left the conference room.

Here is the press release from UPENN that was added to their website that same day:
Barbaro’s legacy endures as anniversary approaches

Another press release can be found on The Bloodhorse Magazine posted on January 29th, 2008
Barbaro's Legacy Continues

Update: Press release from TheHorse.com posted 1/29/08:
Barbaro's Legacy Lives On At UPENN

Press release from the NTRA (National Thoroughbred Racing Association posted 1/29/08:
Barbaro's Legacy Continues

Delaware Online Article posted 2/2/08:
A Year Later, Barbaro's Legacy is Still Strong

DVM - The News Magazine of Veterinary Medicine Posted 2/1/08
Funds started in Barbaro's name still growing


After our amazing visit with Dr Richardson, Jennifer Rench escorted our little group on a tour of the hospital. One of the first buildings we went inside was the Equine Sports Medicine building. Here inside you can see a treadmill the horses are worked on for diagnostic purposes. They are asked to run at any gate from a walk to a full gallop. They will be measured for oxygen intake and a scope is put down inside their lungs to look for any injuries or pathogens.

She showed us some large tubing in the corner with a flower pot duct taped to the end of it. The tubing is very expensive special tubing from NASA used for collecting information on the air the horse is breathing out (I'm sure I'm not explaining this well) and the flower pot just seemed to work best for strapping it onto the horse's face! Sometimes the simplest things make the best tools!


Here is the ultrasound unit. Basically it houses all the same equipment as a human ultrasound room only on a much larger scale! This room has the capability of working with two horses at one time. Each horse is held in the iron stocks.


This next part gets very emotional. I have trouble even looking at these photos and writing about it is rather difficult. The next part of our tour was the orthopedic surgical suite. Yes, where Barbaro was treated for his injuries. Here in fact is a photo of the actual room Barbaro had his surgery in. It is empty at this time, the preparations are done in the doors you can see through the window and then the horse is wheeled into this room for the actual surgery. If a cast is required or other treatments they are done in the room on the other side of those blue doors as well.

For a very severe orthopedic case, the horse is then moved from the surgery suite on a railing system and they are placed onto this raft (you know the story) and submersed in the 98 degree water to be woken up. Yes, this is the recovery pool where Barbaro woke up after every time he was placed under general anesthesia. Horses wake up from anesthesia quite violently because they are disoriented as they are coming to. Their "flight or fight" instincts kick in and they can hurt themselves or their caretakers during the process. This pool allows for them to kick out as their instincts react but they remain safe from further injury. It is the only pool like it of its kind.

Walking into this room was absolutely the most emotional moment I had during this visit. I remember the night of Barbaro's first surgery and having checked out the UPENN website that day I saw a video of how the pool was used. As I was searching all of the websites for any news while the whole world knew he was having surgery, I cried tears of joy and relief when someone posted, "He's in the pool." I'll never forget that moment. I at least knew then that Dr Richardson felt the surgery went well enough to wake him up. Standing right here where it happened brought the memories back. Waiting, waiting, waiting.... HOPE.

After waking up, Barbaro was then lifted out of his "life raft" (my name for it) and using this railing system he was brought into another padded room with rubber flooring where he was fully expected to stand, and walk to his stall in the ICU unit on his own four legs. Another miracle!

I remember Dr Richardson reporting that Barbaro practically dragged them to his stall! What a great vet he is. Not only did he have the skills to perform such a difficult surgery, he had the sense of knowing how much the whole world was hanging on his every word, and with his humor he put our minds at ease. Yet, he made sure that it was clear that full recovery would be a very long haul if at all possible. We all learned to take it one day at a time and that was initiated by this wonderful man.

We were not able to get a tour of the ICU unfortunately. There had been an emergency case brought in and there was too much activity going on inside to accomodate visitors. We did visit the outside of the ICU and here is a photograph of the outside of Barbaro's stall. The last two windows were the ones he looked out of every day and was reported to have "whistled at the girls" when he saw some mares walking by. Dr Richardson was very encouraged by this because it showed Barbaro's wonderful positive attitude shortly following such a major injury. Jennifer also explained to us that the doors on the very end of the building are the ones Barbaro went through as he was unloaded from the trailer following his journey from Pimlico Race Track.

Our tour ended in what I feel is a very fitting place. Barbaro's memorial bench purchased by the fans who loved him so much. It is in a perfect place, a quiet spot through the doors leading outside the lobby to the hospital facilities. I love the idea of people passing this bench on their way to the other buildings, so they can remember all of the good things Barbaro has brought to New Bolton Center. It is also a wonderful reminder of the slogan they have adopted since then, "We treat every patient like a champion".

This was a weekend that has been placed as a major mark on my timeline of life. Moments I will never forget.

Before leaving we stopped back to say goodbye to Dr Sweeney. She had graciously allowed us to put some of our things in her office so we did not have to carry them around on our tour. We came by her office to pick them up and to give her one last hug, thank her for our time together and to say goodbye. She had a single white rose on her desk from the Fans of Barbaro and prepared lovingly by Kennett Florist.

Once I was in our car, just me and my husband I allowed the tears to fall. I will always miss Barbaro and I will always wish he were still with us. But I celebrate his life and the wonderful endeavors that have come from it. One year later they are still going strong. Many people are changed from having known him and I am no exception. He will always be in my heart.