Barbaro remains stable and comfortable.

Here is the most important part of the article on DRF.

He's been real good the last two weeks," Matz said. "They started to see a little growth in the coronet band in the foundered foot and Dean was real happy with the X-rays of the leg that was broken."

Matz, who planned to stay in Saratoga through Monday, said he has run through the gamut of emotions since Barbaro won the Kentucky Derby on May 6.

"At one point I thought I was going to win the Triple Crown with this horse, next time I was sort of resigned to the fact maybe it wasn't supposed to be and he's going to come through this and be a great stallion," Matz said. "Then, when this other thing happened, I sort of resigned myself that they were going to put him down. Next morning I go and look, there he is bright-eyed. Every time I had myself resigned to something that was going to happen it never did. I don't think physically I was getting tired, emotionally I never knew what to expect."

Matz gave some insight into Barbaro's daily routine.

"He goes in a sling at 8 or 9 o'clock in the morning," Matz said. "He sits in the sling; he's learned to use the sling. He stays there till 7 o'clock in the evening, they let him go, and he lies down.

"[When] he's anxious to get out of the sling, he moves around a bit, he makes noise like he doesn't like it any more. When he wants to get back in the sling he walks over to where the sling is. He's pretty amazing."

Matz continues to be amazed by the outpouring of support the public has shown, especially since the news broke about Barbaro having laminitis.

"When Dean announced that [Barbaro] had foundered, the next day there were over 35 baskets of carrots, and apples and flowers and mints at New Bolton center," Matz said. "People are sending breakfast for New Bolton Center from a place in New York. . . . The cards keep coming; everyday I get cards. Everybody always asks about him.

"He's fighting. If any horse can get through it, he can do it. That's what I got to keep hoping and try to keep positive."

Coincidentally, Matz was in Saratoga on the day Preakness winner Bernardini was running in the Jim Dandy.

"I'm anxious to see the race," Matz said. "Bernardini's a real nice horse. It sure would have been nice to see them run against each other; that's never going to happen."

Matz was asked if part of him was rooting for Bernardini to lose so that his chances of unseating Barbaro as 3-year-old champion would diminish.

"Right now, I'm more worried about saving his life instead of whether he's 3-year-old champion," he said.

Awww! I can see it now:

"Bite me, Barbaro, bite me!"

Voice of mare in next stall down, faking a lame leg just to be near the hunky Bobby: "Nooooo, Bobby, bite MEEEE!"

Heh heh, he's "becoming more doglike" - cute. My late puppy would do other things than a back nip, but would always do that "who, me?" puppy-face when EvilTwinDog had somehow gotten in the house while I was out and done something to make it look like SweetPuppy had been baaaad.

[Opera aria - "Barber-o of Seville"]
*Bar!baro, Bar!baro, Bar! ba! ... Ro* - as in "Figaro"

Or how about:

Barbar Oh!

Bar-bar-bar ... bar-bar-bar-Oh! ...
Bar-bar-bar ... bar ...
Oh, Barbar-Oh-oh-oh-oh! ...
Look at you go-oh-oh ...
Bar-bar-Oh!-ho-ho ....
You've got us rockin' and a-ringin' ...
Swingin' and a-slingin' ...
Barbar-Oh! ... bar-bar... bar-bar-bar-Oh! ...

Went to the course,
Lookin' for a horse ...
Saw BarbarOh! and I knew he was The Force ...
Barbar-Oh! ... bar-bar ... bar-bar-bar-Oh! ...
You're my beau-eau-eau,
Bar-bar-Oh!-ho-ho ...
Ya got me singin' and a-flingin',
Slingin' and a-swingin' ... Barbar-Oh! ... bar-bar... bar-bar ... bar-Oh!

Spied Seattle Slew ... saw Citation, too ... then Affirmed & crew ... but I knew they wouldn't do ....

Barbar-Oh! ... bar-bar ... bar-bar-bar-Oh!
Ya got us swingin' and a-singin', flingin' and a-slingin',
BAR BAR OH!

Barbaro's right hind healing well
Fox Sports August 2

KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. (AP) - Barbaro's right hind bones are healing so well his cast could have been off by now, if not for the laminitis in his other hind leg.

Dr. Dean Richardson said Tuesday that the painful hoof disease the Kentucky Derby winner has is preventing the cast from being removed because the colt could not protect himself by bearing more weight on the left hind.
Barbaro suffered life-threatening injuries when he broke three bones above and below his right rear ankle at the start of the May 20 Preakness.

"If he hadn't had the founder (laminitis) on his left hind, he'd probably be out of the cast and he'd probably be in a splinted bandage on the shoe," Richardson said in a telephone interview. "That's where we'd likely be. I can't do that because his left hind is the more sore of the two legs right now."

Barbaro's left hind hoof, which was stricken with a severe case of laminitis, is improving and started to show slight signs of re-growing after 80 percent of it was removed. Barbaro needs to regrow the hoof if he is to have any shot of walking - albeit with a hitch in his gait.

Barbaro, still in stable condition, has the bandage on his left hind foot changed daily.

"It's too early to see true hoof wall forming," Richardson said from the New Bolton Center. "But the coronary band, the part of the hoof that's the equivalent of the nail bed where the hoof is going to grow down from, that looks very good. It's too early to see a lot."

Barbaro has been in an intensive care stall at the George D. Widener Hospital since his horrific injuries in the second race of the Triple Crown series. Barbaro sustained a broken cannon bone above the ankle, a broken sesamoid bone behind the ankle and a broken long pastern bone below the ankle. The fetlock joint - the ankle - was dislocated.

Richardson said after performing surgery the pastern bone was shattered in "20-plus pieces."

Now, the right hind may be the least of Barbaro's worries in what remains a tedious, long recovery.

"Everything looks good under the cast," Richardson said. "The X-rays looked as good as they can look."

Richardson was concerned the 3-year-old colt would try to put too much weight on the rear hind if the cast was removed. Richardson said the left rear hoof has to regrow and stay healthy.

Richardson said the colt's prognosis was "poor" after it was stricken with laminitis, but eased off that grim outlook Tuesday.

"I don't know. Everyday that goes by, it's great," he said. "He has so long to go I don't even think about the prognosis. We just work on the horse and hope he continues to be happy."

Barbaro looks bright and happy with a voracious appetite to those who see him. Owner Gretchen Jackson usually visits twice daily to feed Barbaro fresh-cut grass from her nearby farm.

"It makes me feel better about the poor guy stuck in there," she said. "He likes it."

Jackson and her husband, Roy, said they look at Barbaro's recovery as a day-to-day process and try not to let their emotions ride too high over good news or get discouraged over changes in his condition.

"Just looking at him, he hasn't changed at all from the way he's been all along," she said. "If you had that as all you could go by, you couldn't believe he wasn't going to make it."

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