Posted on 08/09/2006 7:20:55 PM PDT by neverdem
Barbaro’s fractured right hind leg is healing well, and veterinarians say they are encouraged by the progress the colt is showing in regrowing the hoof wall on his left hind leg.
Barbaro, the Kentucky Derby winner who took a catastrophic misstep that shattered his right hind leg in the Preakness Stakes on May 20, was said to be resting comfortably yesterday in the intensive care unit of the George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals in Kennett Square, Pa. On Tuesday, his cast was changed.
“The leg looked good under the cast, especially considering the length of time that he has been in a cast,” Dean Richardson, the chief for surgery, said in a statement yesterday. “The radiographs also were encouraging. There is no sign of active infection. This is further supported by his markedly improving blood values over the last two weeks.”
Richardson said Barbaro had come out of the cast changing without problems and continued to be a good patient. “He is a very intelligent horse and has definitely figured out the whole process,” he said.
The cast, which encloses the foot and extends past the knee, will be changed regularly until the bones and joint are fused enough to sustain Barbaro’s weight.
His left hind foot, which developed a crippling and often-fatal condition known as laminitis, is also improving. After removing 80 percent of Barbaro’s left hoof wall last month, Richardson warned that the colt’s chances of recovery were poor. Still, Richardson and Barbaro’s owners, Roy and Gretchen Jackson, decided to continue aggressive treatment.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It's a horse!!
Very heart warming news.
Thanks for the post. Barbaro is special.
Horsey ping! :)
Well, folks, I am a horeseman, and there are some things these people aren't telling you. The best thing to hope for is that the owners will be able to collect some semen to freeze before they put Barbaro down. Semen is collected using an artificial vagina, and a collection mare. Barbaro has to be able to support himself on his hind legs in order for this to happen. In the meantime, this horse is being subjected to a situation that to me is very very sad. Don't get me wrong: I hope that somehow they are able to get some progeny from this wonderful horse. But in the meantime, well, it just sucks.
You can't use frozen semen for stud purposes. The owners are doing this because they love the horse. If they wanted money, they could have "put him down" at the track for the insurance money.
While it's true that horse semen is much more fragile than bull semen, equine artificial insemination has become the norm. It is cheaper to hire a vet to collect the semen and freeze it than the transportation costs involved in shipping a mare across country.
ping
Pass it along PING!
Um, no. Not in race horses.
D. To be eligible for registration, a foal must be the result of a stallion’s Breeding with a broodmare (which is the physical mounting of a broodmare by a stallion with intromission of the penis and ejaculation of semen into the reproductive tract). As an aid to the Breeding, a portion of the ejaculate produced by the stallion during such mating may immediately be placed in the uterus of the broodmare being bred. A natural gestation must take place in, and delivery must be from, the body of the same broodmare in which the foal was conceived. Without limiting the above, any foal resulting from or produced by the processes of Artificial Insemination, Embryo Transfer or Transplant, Cloning or any other form of genetic manipulation not herein specified, shall not be eligible for registration.
I'm sorry I injected a little reality into the situation. I don't mean to imply that Barbaro isn't worth saving. I wish I could sit down and discuss this face-to-face with all of the soft-hearted folks on this thread. It's just that horses and dogs are not the same thing. The fact is, I'm too sad to talk about it and that's all I have to say about that....
They are saving their horse because they love him. He's useless as a stud because of his back legs. They could have had $30 mil to $50 mil in insurance if they had destroyed him on the track. They didn't do that because they love Barbaro. Their statements have been posted on other Barbaro threads.
The stallion in the thoroughbred breeding programs has to be able to mount the dummy mare for collection and the mare has to be in the room.
But frozen sperm won't cut it and won't Barbaros legs be too weak for him to be used as a stud? Even if rules are "bent" and not broken?
He is wrong. It was explained right after the accident that artificial insemination for stud purposes is never done. They're treating this horse because they love him.
You may, indeed, be a horseman. I have no way of knowing either way and must take your word. However, you clearly don't know the world of Thoroughbred breeding, where artificial insemination is not allowed. Stallions must live cover mares. The owners know, and have known from the beginning, that Barbaro's chances of being able to cover mares is poor. All depends on if he can ever put enough weight on that injured leg.
I think it's been clear for some time that his owners are doing this because he's their first Kentucky Derby winner, and they want to save him, even if they just geld him and turn him into a pet. They are giving him his shot, though, and the horse is putting up a magnificent fight.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if some day he could cover mares and turned out to be a top stallion? I know. I know. That's the romantic impulse in me, and the odds are against him. But so what.
He's wrong. The Jockey Club, which governs Thoroughbred breeding in this country, does not permit artificial insemination. The odds of Barbaro being able to live cover mares, which is required of Thoroughbred stallions, are slim. The owners are doing this for altruistic reasons.
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