With Loving and Costly Care, Barbaro’s Long Odds Improve- "New York Times" 8/21/06

By JOE DRAPE
Published: August 21, 2006

KENNETT SQUARE, Pa., Aug. 17 — Barbaro was reclined on his side in a stall. His left hind foot curled out beneath him, revealing a fitting that his surgeon called a foam-lined rubber sneaker. His right hind leg, the one that has been in a cast for 90 days, was hidden beneath a carpet of knee-deep straw.


Graphic: An Update on Barbaro


Dr. Dean Richardson with Barbaro, now walked outside every day.
University of Pennsylvania, Sabina Louise Pierce, via Associated Press


Barbaro wears a bandage around his neck to protect a catheter, and his left hip has a few white splotches, healing blisters from a combination of his sweat and the antiseptics used in his initial operation. When he awakened from a serene slumber, however, his eyes burned as bright as a Kentucky Derby champion’s. After all, he is a Derby champion.

Barbaro’s owners, Roy and Gretchen Jackson, notice that look in his eyes, as does his trainer, Michael Matz, and the medical staff at the George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals. It is why they have never left this horse for dead.

They refused to do so when Barbaro took a catastrophic misstep and shattered his right hind leg in the opening yards of the Preakness Stakes on May 20. They forged on in early July when the colt developed severe laminitis, a painful and often-fatal condition that afflicts horses that bear excessive weight on a limb.

Instead, they have combined aggressive medical treatment with tender loving care in one of the most extraordinary efforts ever mounted to save a top-flight racehorse. Gretchen Jackson comes here twice a day with fresh grass clippings to feed Barbaro. Mr. Matz also arrives daily to change the leg bandages on the best horse that he has ever trained. Barbaro is also fed the carrots and apples that continue to arrive here from the public. He has been doused with holy water sent by well-wishers.

This holistic and community approach seems to be working, not to mention the untold tens of thousands of dollars in medical care.

The sling Barbaro once needed to keep weight off his legs now hangs in storage in another stall, and the epidurals he required for pain have not been necessary for weeks. Best of all, for almost two weeks, Barbaro has been walked outside for 20 or 30 minutes a day in a field, where he grazes on grass and looks every bit like a normal horse.

“He’s been very, very good on his legs,” said Dr. Dean Richardson, his surgeon and the man who leads him outside each day. “It’s exciting. He’s improving.”

Dr. Richardson warned that Barbaro was hardly out of the woods and that a full recovery would not be evident for months. Still, he said he was encouraged by the progress.

On July 13, Dr. Richardson had to compose himself when he announced that laminitis had ravaged Barbaro’s left hind hoof wall and that the chances of survival were poor. Now, his hoof wall is growing back, and his fractured right hind leg appears to be mending, Dr. Richardson said. But he cautioned that until the cast was removed, he could not be certain the leg would be strong enough to bear Barbaro’s weight.

“I think he’s got a 50-50 shot,” said Dr. Richardson, echoing the prognosis he gave May 21, after performing an operation on the colt’s leg for more than five hours. “He’s back to that level. Now, if you would have asked me the same question six weeks ago, I would have told you they were a lot — a lot — less than that.”

Luck, too, will continue to play a part in Barbaro’s convalescence. Gretchen Jackson said good fortune was with them even on May 20, when the colt hobbled to a stop at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.

“When the accident happened right there on the track, Michael Matz and the track veterinarians told us that Barbaro had to go the New Bolton Center and Dean Richardson,” she said. “They knew Dean was a magician putting horses back together, and fortunately, we were just an hour of so away.”

The New Bolton Center is part of the University of Pennsylvania, and the Jacksons have long been among its benefactors; Gretchen Jackson is on the board of the veterinary school.

The Jacksons have been involved in thoroughbred racing for nearly 30 years and have a reputation for going to great lengths for their injured horses. Roy Jackson, whose grandfather William Rockefeller was once the president of Standard Oil, and his wife, Gretchen, have spared no expense when it comes to Barbaro’s recovery.