Beauty taken from us.....

It has become a ritual for us to go and watch the Kentucky Derby. It is really a great thing to see. I have always thought that horses were truly beautiful and graceful creatures.

I am now fortunate enough to live in the heart of horse country. I can often sit here at the computer and hear a horse whinny from one of the farms across the road. Some of the horses that run in the derby actually have been trained at some point here in Ocala.

I am a very sentimental person, and sometimes I could cry at the drop of a dime. I remember watching "Black Beauty" and crying at the ending. I was heartbroken for Barbaro who had to be put down. Imagine how I felt after this year's Kentucky Derby when a strong, proud' real-life black beauty, a filly named "Eight Belles", ran her heart out and came in second. A really strong finish, where you could see her trying so hard to catch back up to the winner "Big Brown" who had overtaken her lead. What heart!

Shortly after, she collapsed onto the track with two broken ankles. They said she would have been in such pain the way they were broken that she was euthanized on the track.

It breaks my heart to read about it, and my heart goes out to her trainer and owners. It is hard when beauty is taken from us too soon....