Posted on 08/14/2006 6:14:35 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
PHILADELPHIA - How's this for a breath of fresh air? Barbaro is enjoying daily outings outside his intensive care stall to pick his own grass, enjoy the warm weather and stretch his recovering legs.
Barbaro stepped outside his ICU stall and started daily walks on a grassy area near the unit last week for the first time since having catastrophic injuries in the Preakness nearly three months ago. The Kentucky Derby winner, also recovering from a severe case of laminitis on his left hoof, continues to show signs he's on the road to recovery.
"It's a big step just to know he feels good enough that you can take him out of the stall and walk him around like a normal horse and he eats grass like a normal horse," Dean Richardson, chief surgeon at the New Bolton Center, said Monday. "That doesn't mean he's healed. It just means things are going well right now."
The 3-year-old had made only a couple of brief walks back and forth from his stall to the surgery room at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center until last week. Now Barbaro is walked daily for about 15 to 20 minutes in a secluded area not far from the George D. Widener Hospital ICU.
"I thought he was thrilled the first time he went out," Richardson said in a telephone interview from New Bolton. "He just seemed very happy to be out. You can tell he's looking forward to it every day. It's absolutely normal. Horses love to be outside, obviously, and he's pretty excited about it."
Barbaro is shown on video released by the University of Pennsylvania grazing on grass, with Richardson walking him around.
Barbaro has a cast on his right hind leg that encloses the foot and extends up to just below the hock. There's a bandage on the laminitis-stricken left hind foot, and support wraps on Barbaro's front legs.
The colt's comfort level has taken a surprising turn since Richardson said in early July the prognosis for a full recovery was "poor."
"I think we're lucky his tissues are fairly healthy," Richardson said. "I don't know why he's more comfortable than some horses with the same condition."
Barbaro had the cast on his injured right hind leg changed last Tuesday and Richardson said it might not need to be changed for about another three weeks. The left hoof, which needs to completely regrow if the colt is to have any shot of walking, remains the biggest concern.
"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 said. "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."
I would think most guys wouldn’t think that such a bad way to live out his days…
Best news I've heard all day. God bless you, Barbaro.
He better get healthy cuz he has 72 mares waiting for him, that lucky stud!
GOOD news bump :)
Beautiful horse..
The hoof is much more than just a nail. It's live tissue inside with both soft tissue and bone.
When there is an inflamation like he had, the outer hoof wall will become distorted, or crack and fall off. I think he had some of his come off. The wall can be repaired with a bondo-like substance ~if~ the source of infection and inflamation has passed, but the new hoof will still take about a year to grow down from the hairline to the ground.
Good news bump!
I for one hope life always goes on... no matter what 'stuff' happens.
Actually, with all the "stuff" happening this gives some needed relief.
I'm thrilled to know that beautiful Barbaro is continuing on the road to recovery!
Thanks for the ping. Has everybody here "who wants to" seen the videos?
One from New Bolton and one from GMA this morning:
http://www.vet.upenn.edu/newsandevents/news/BarbaroClip8-14.htm
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2310386
Go Barbaro Gooooo!
Thank you, Norm!
Ping to Wolfstar.
Congratulations to all freepers for their treatment of this issue.
If you were a fan of the sport, you would understand.
Feed him Knox gelatin (don't tell him it came from other horses though)
I think we'll leave that to the vets to decide. ;~)
But his is better-looking!
Good news bump!
Poor guy still looks pretty thin. Eyes look good though. Looks alert and engaged.
Thanks for the ping. Had the waterworks going early this morning at my desk. This is such good news.
Hoping for some on Deuce next week. Surgery scheduled for Tuesday. Brought him home from the trainer last nite and I though the trainer was going to cry when we left. He's gotten very attached to the horse. I think he's more worried than I am but I refuse to believe this isn't anything that can't be beaten.
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