Barbaro makes slow, steady progress

KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. -- He's looking good, feeling good and eating well these days, yet Barbaro is still a long way from leaving the hospital.

The Kentucky Derby winner went for his daily walk outside the intensive care unit at the New Bolton Center on Tuesday, with Dr. Dean Richardson leading the way and carefully watching every step as the injured colt grazed for about 40 minutes.

"He's in good spirits. He's been very happy the last couple of weeks actually," Richardson said as Barbaro hung his head and chomped on grass. "And I'm pretty happy with how he appears to be."

Barbaro was still wearing a cast on his right hind leg -- the one he shattered a few yards out of the starting gate at the Preakness on May 20 -- and a bandage over his left hind foot -- stricken in mid-July with severe laminitis, a painful and often fatal condition brought on by uneven weight distribution to a limb.

Richardson said the catastrophic injuries to Barbaro's right hind leg were nearly healed, but it could take six months to as long as a year for the 3-year-old colt to grow back the 80 percent of his left hind hoof that was removed to combat the laminitis.

"It wouldn't surprise me if it's a minimum of six more months before he has a hoof that might hold up to being out on his own," Richardson said. "It could take a year."

While Barbaro will remain at the center that is part of the University of Pennsylvania for many more months, the cast on his right hind leg could be replaced by a splint within two weeks. It would be the next step on Barbaro's road to recovery.

"I'll make a judgment then on what the leg looks like as well as what the X-rays look like whether or not we replace it with a splinted bandage or another cast," Richardson said. "It will depend what it looks like. We are going to be very conservative -- not push anything too quickly."

Barbaro began grazing Aug. 9 -- nearly three months after he broke down in the Preakness.

"His vital signs have all been good," said Richardson, the veterinarian who performed more than five hours of surgery on Barbaro's shattered leg. "Basically, he's really not doing anything wrong the last couple of weeks, but there's still a long way to go."