Associated Press
Horse Racing News Wire
KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. -- Barbaro seems downright playful.
The Kentucky Derby winner squirms in his safety device, and even sits on his damaged hind legs the way dogs do when they beg for treats. The sling Barbaro spends most of the day in was designed for comfort in his recovery. The 3-year-old colt instead sees it as a challenge.
"He was using it similar to a jolly jumper," said Dr. Kathleen Anderson, Barbaro's attending vet when the horse was racing and stabled in trainer Michael Matz's barn at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md.
"He was almost doing like children do when they're bored, they do the jolly jumper where they kind of boing around the stall. He was boinging, boinging around the stall a little bit."
Those are encouraging signs for the ailing colt, though the odds of Barbaro's full recovery from a severe case of laminitis and a reconstructed right hind leg are really no better than they were a week ago.
"It is important for people to understand this is not a 'routine' laminitis," Dr. Dean Richardson said Monday in a statement. "The care involved in treating a hoof with this degree of compromise is complex."
Barbaro's condition was stable Monday, his vital signs, appetite and heart rate were normal after another comfortable night.
"We will continue to manage his pain successfully, and he is alert," Richardson said.
He said the fiberglass cast on the colt's left hind foot will be changed so the hoof can be treated and watched for signs of infection. Because of laminitis, a painful and often-fatal condition, 80 percent of the hoof wall was removed last week.
The cast on the colt's right hind leg -- shattered shortly after the start of the Preakness Stakes on May 20 -- has been changed at least four times in the last two weeks.
"He has learned how to adapt his posture to the sling so he can benefit from the most comfort," Anderson told The Associated Press.
Anderson left a mid-afternoon visit feeling good about the way the colt looked, though she noted that the prognosis for his recovery was still not encouraging.
"The reality is, you have to say poor at this point in time," shesaid. "It doesn't mean it's hopeless and I think that's the big difference."
Nearly everyone who has visited Barbaro during the past week has said the same things about his appearance: He looks bright-eyed and alert.
Those seemingly never-ending deliveries of apples, carrots and peppermints from fans don't seem to be going to waste, given the reports of his hearty appetite. Kennett Florist makes several deliveries a day to the hospital, its vans overflowing with roses and gourmet baskets sent from well-wishers.
"It's been very good for business, but it's been very time consuming," store owner Alie Berstler said. "These people are very, very upset."
Berstler said one fan ordered four dozen roses at a time, and estimates she has probably delivered more than 400 roses, 300 apples and 150 pounds of carrots since late last week.
This story is from ESPN.com's automated news wire. Wire index
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