You know how the old saying goes: There can be a hundred people in the room, and 99 of them will be thinking about the eulogy you just posted for your dearly departed horse.
On Sunday, Lady Gaga broke from her revelry over her tied win at the Critics’ Choice Awards to announce that tragedy had also struck that night, and she was forced to say good-bye to her horse. In a message composed on every celebrity’s favorite DIY publicist, the Notes app, she wrote:
I am so honored and blessed to have won both Best Song and Best Actress alongside Glenn Close this evening. My heart is exploding with pride. But it saddens me to say that just after the show I learned that my dear angel of a horse, Arabella, is dying. I am rushing to her now to say goodbye. Her name means ‘yield to prayer.’ She is and was a beautiful horse. Our souls and spirits were one. When she was in pain, so was I. I will never forget the moments we shared. Long hikes together, galloping through the canyons. Feeding her cookies. She will forever be a part of me. I am so very sad. But I wish for your pain to end, and the gates of heaven to open for you. I love you. Girl, where do you think you’re goin?
There is a lot to process in the span of a tight 143 words. First, consider the structure: how to jump from the joy of sharing a night with Glenn Close to a somber moment remembering better days with your pet horse. (Do you call a horse your pet? Is it just your horse? Also, what kind of cookies do horses eat? These are questions to which richer, and/or more famous people likely know the answers.) There is also the moment at which Gaga seems to be addressing Arabella directly, breaking the fourth wall and sharing an inside joke with the world at large.
And because saying good-bye to a beloved animal is always difficult, allow us a moment of silence, best expressed with this photo of Gaga and Arabella indoors at a piano.
