Barbaro

Anna Leroux · Post by **Anna Leroux** » 17 years ago

This article on Fox Sports

Nearly six months after a horrifying accident at the Preakness, Barbaro had the cast removed from his lower right hind leg on Monday. The Kentucky Derby winner was in the cast since having surgery on May 21, a day after the second race of the Triple Crown series.
"He had a perfect pool recovery and immediately stood. He walked easily back to his stall," said Dean Richardson, chief surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center. "He used all of his legs quite well."

Barbaro's left hind hoof, which was stricken with a severe case of laminitis, hasn't shown signs of any new problems.

"The hoof needs several more months of growth before we will know how much foot structure and function will be recovered," Richardson said.

During Monday's procedure, Barbaro's foot was trimmed and a new shoe was glued on it. A padded bandage with plastic and fiberglass splints was placed on his lower limb for support.

Barbaro suffered life-threatening injuries when he broke three bones above and below his right rear ankle at the start of the Preakness. The 3-year-old colt 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."

Barbaro's right hind bones healed so well after surgery his cast could have been off months ago, if not for the laminitis in his other hind leg. The painful hoof disease prevented the cast from being removed sooner because the colt could not protect himself by bearing more weight on the left hind.

Barbaro's devastating injuries captured the attention of racing fans across the nation this summer. The outpouring of sympathy was overwhelming and daily updates on Barbaro's condition were provided by the medical staff at the George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals.

S.C. Burns · Post by **S.C. Burns** » 17 years ago

Laminitis, too? Jeezuz.

IsaP · Post by **IsaP** » 17 years ago

He wanted to live.. I don't think anything could have stopped this day from happening.

Teri Lawrence · Post by **Teri Lawrence** » 17 years ago

In cases like this, compensation lameness in the opposite leg is very, very common. The laminitis was caused by him shifting so much of his weight onto that leg that it put undue strain on it, probably exacerbated by going from being in racing training (and extremely active) to being confined to a stall overnight. Unfortunate, but not unexpected.

Anna Leroux · Post by **Anna Leroux** » 17 years ago

I read the weekly reports on Barbaro and I followed his career... I love this horse and I really wish he makes it b/c my parents have a mare they really want to breed to him when he's ready to breed.. the cross would be a nice horse but we breed sporthorses so the foal would never go to the track unless my parents decide to.... the foal would most certainly be an eventer or show jumper (maybe I could train him/her!) I train alot of our horses so it'd be cool if I could train a foal of Barbaro I'd name it.... His Chance or Her Chance or something like that

Alysse Peverell · Post by **Alysse Peverell** » 17 years ago

I think you'll have a hard time getting a sporthorse mare into Barbaro's book. And by a hard time, I mean it won't happen.

Anna Leroux · Post by **Anna Leroux** » 17 years ago

Um we prolly won't have a problem with it we breed to top Thoroughbreds all the time and anyways our mare is a Thoroughbred she was bred to race but she never made it to the track we bought her and have been competing her in eventing it's not time to breed her

Ara Davies · Post by **Ara Davies** » 17 years ago

Barbaro is likely to have an extremely limited book, especially for the first couple of years, so I doubt they're going to be interested in breeding a foal that won't make it to the track. Keep in mind that we don't even know yet if he's going to be ABLE to breed.

IsaP · Post by **IsaP** » 17 years ago

Do Sporthorses allow for AI? If so, you may get a shot yet. Though he might not be able to cover a mare, AI is safer, and he would be able to have people hanging on to him to keep him on the dummy mare. I severely wish the racing industry would allow for it, but I guess they have their reasons. Though.. I don't know if a thoroughbred farm would even have a dummy mare...

Ara Davies · Post by **Ara Davies** » 17 years ago

It's not an issue of him being able to stay on the mare, it's an issue of him putting too much weight on his hind legs, BOTH of which were badly damaged. I doubt they're going to risk injury to produce sport horses.

Anna Leroux · Post by **Anna Leroux** » 17 years ago

We've done AI in the past mainly with pony, horse crosses but I don't know my parents have been doing it since before I was born so I don't know if they've done it for TBs since really I don't pay to much attention to the breeding side (I'd much rather train them and ride them then breed them) but I assume they have. The mare that we have is such a nice mare she's Storm Cat bred (again all I know about her breeding) and she has turned out one other nice foal... an AP Indy filly, that one of our students adores I think that the Barbaro crossing (if it happens because even if it does happen things still go wrong in breeding all the time) would make a nice foal. The deciding factor for my parents in him wasn't that he's a race winner but by how he has coped with being confined I don't know how Barbaro was to break and early training so I can only guess for the crossing.

Alysse Peverell · Post by **Alysse Peverell** » 17 years ago

Well if you do AI you can't register them as a a thoroughbred.

Seriously, these major stallions will not be breeding sport horse mares. They have many classy, well-bred race mares all trying to get into their books. The bookmakers are not going to let a mare into his book so he can make a pretty jumper.

Brianna McKenzie · Post by **Brianna McKenzie** » 17 years ago

And yet, Standardbreds are pretty much exclusively AI..

Embro Transplants are popular with standardbreds too, so a great "race" mare can be a mommy AND a race horse all at the same time.

S.C. Burns · Post by **S.C. Burns** » 17 years ago

Alysse Jacobs wrote: Seriously, these major stallions will not be breeding sport horse mares. They have many classy, well-bred race mares all trying to get into their books. The bookmakers are not going to let a mare into his book so he can make a pretty jumper.

She said they got an AP Indy filly...why not a Barbaro baby some years down the line? It seems a bit premature to predict what any horse's book will be like in the future...

Anna Leroux · Post by **Anna Leroux** » 17 years ago

ooh with our Indy filly my parents seriously considered racing her.... it wouldn't be the first time they've considered racing our foal.... and we don't breed for looks because in show jumping that doesn't matter... show jumping is based on speed... which is our breeding to Thoroughbreds because we breed for the speed, we mainly deal with Thoroughbreds and a little bit of Warmbloods. I wish we could the Indy filly but she's 4 and doing well on the 2 ft jumps so we're going to be selling her at auction in January or Feburary we haven't decided which sale