But I think it’s also important to put this in perspective. As I write, there are 200,000 people dead or missing from a cyclone in Myanmar, with the concern that the number could be 500,000 when you include disease and hunger. I can’t imagine what kind of grief people there must be going through. The lack of water, communication, or medical help — it’s overwhelming. In the face of overwhelming numbers, we’re tempted to block it all out.

Anytime you mix horses and speed, there are risks. But there are risks in nearly every aspects of life. We’re approaching prom season, and even though I don’t have teenagers, I get worried. I know the statistics about teen deaths and alcohol (see www.madd.org - “Traffic crashes are the number one killer of teens (15-20 year old), and 31% of teen traffic deaths are alcohol-related.”)

I’m not minimizing the loss of our horses. One of the premises of “Inspired by horses” (www.inspiredbyhorses.com) is that God put something noble inside inside horses that connects with the nobility He put inside of people. Maybe something inside us says we can’t put the world to rights or care intimately about the starving millions, but we can  function fully when it comes to our horses.

Perhaps the loss of a great horse also reminds us of our mortality. When it happens occasionally, we may be tempted to run faster or farther, as if to beat the odds. But when we hear of more than the occasional death, we come to a full stop and look around. As we do, we can become immobilized, as is tempting when we hear about a plane crash, despite that there are 87,000 flights per day over the U.S.

Or in true “carrots for courage” tradition, we can look at the bigger picture, realizing how many races or events have no injuries. We think of all the local shows, and the faithful people running water trucks, dragging rings, insisting on safe jump courses and so forth. And we recognize their contribution. Quite often, they make the difference between a safe event and one where disaster strikes.

Those people often go out of their way to help others, usually in quiet, unrecognized ways. Each time someone checks the cinch for a child before she gets on her horse, or reties a horse tied to the trailer who is about to get loose, they’re making a contribution. I want us to care about Eight Belles and Barbaro, and the old mare in our own pasture, but I also want us to care for the people in the industry, who themselves care a lot about the welfare of horses – and not just their own.