Barbaro Now Walking Regularly in Recovery
"He's absolutely not out of the woods yet," Dean Richardson said of Barbaro, injured on May 20.
(Sabina Louise Pierce - AP)
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Barbaro , the Kentucky Derby winner who has battled back from a catastrophic injury in the Preakness and laminitis, has taken some of the most important steps of his 3-year-old life: He is walking from his intensive care stall to graze outdoors in a grassy patch and enjoy the sunshine.
Considering the grim prognosis stemming from his development of acute laminitis in his left rear leg July 13, the colt's continued ability to overcome adversity has heartened those involved with his care.
"We who see him every day know he has been moving well and looking pleased and happy," said Corrine Sweeney , executive director at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, Pa. Barbaro, who shattered his right rear leg May 20 at the start of the Preakness Stakes, appears to walk without a hitch in a video posted on the center's Web site, but he is laden with a huge cast on his right hind leg as well as heavy bandaging around a padded boot that supports the left rear leg. New Bolton chief surgeon Dean Richardson , who said the horse is walked about 15 minutes daily, removed about 80 percent of Barbaro's left rear hoof at the onset of the laminitis, an often fatal inflammation of the connective tissue between the distal phalanx bone and the hoof.
"He's got to get this left hind foot to the point where it's a solid structure that can sustain long-term weight bearing," Richardson told the Associated Press. "Could there still be some major things resulting in him having to be put down? Yeah. He's absolutely not out of the woods yet."
Sweeney said the recovery has been so successful because of Barbaro's high tolerance to pain, the boot, the cast and judicious use of medication. "He's gotten down to where he's getting almost nothing," she said of pain management.
Richardson said Barbaro has begun to gain weight and loves the trips outdoors, which began last week. "He's thrilled to get outside and feel the sun on his back and eat really fresh green grass," Richardson said. "He's been eating handpicked grass, but for a horse, there's nothing quite like ripping it out of the ground yourself."
-- John Scheinman
