A race horse can never "fully recover" from this injury. It was known at the race track that Barbaro's running career is over. It was also doubtful this AM that he would even be able to cover a mare. This "prancing back" is very, very good news. He needs to be carefully mobile during his recovery; enough to promote blood circulation and not enough to over-strain the ankle.
This is horsie talk for making the beast with two backs? (Of course, I know that horsies do it dog-slyle, so to speak. I'm no ~fool~, after all!)