What a superb article on Dr. Richardson, not to mention the note of gratitude from the Jacksons. Truly all involved with Barbaro are the epitome of class.
Continuing prayers and jingles.
Great article on Dr. Richardson! Thanks for all the updates and the pictures. I printed one out and put it on the wall at my desk. He is a beautiful horse!
I will keep jingling!:sadsmile:
Surgeon: Barbaro had ‘incredibly good week’
Derby winner progressing well from broken leg, gets visit from Prado
The Associated Press
Updated: 12:45 a.m. ET May 30, 2006
KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. - Kentucky Derby winner Babaro is progressing so well he might not have the cast on his severely injured right hind leg changed for several weeks.
Dr. Dean Richardson, the surgeon who repaired Barbaro’s shattered bones after the colt broke down at the Preakness Stakes on May 20, said Tuesday the prized patient has had an “incredibly good week — far better than I would have ever hoped so far, so far, so far.”
Richardson said the fiberglass cast on Barbaro’s will be assessed daily, but there’ no urgency for a change.
“Right now this horse is walking so well on his limb, walks around the stall, he’s very active,” Richardson said at a news conference at the University of Pennsylvania’s George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals. “If he continues to look as good as he does, he can wear this cast for several more weeks. It has been a surprisingly good fitting cast considering I thought there would be a loosening of it or swelling above it. Neither one has occurred, and that’s why we’re letting it stay in place.”
Meanwhile, jockey Edgar Prado paid his first visit to Barbaro since pulling up the colt early in the Preakness, and was relieved by what he saw.
“It was very emotional,” Prado said. “I was happy to see him doing so good., feeling so good, looking so bright. He’s not out of the woods yet, but it was really food to see him making progress.”
Following Barbaro’s five-hour plus surgery May 21, Richardson had said the prospects of recovery were “50-50.”
That has changed slightly:
“I was going to call a news conference to say it’s officially 51 percent,” Richardson said, smiling. "Seriously, every day that goes by is a big day, and in terms of some of the complications, some of them were more likely to rear their head in the earlier stages in the convalescence (such as infection within 10-14 days).
Laminitis, an often fatal foot disease, or failure of the injury to heal properly can occur later, Richardson said, “but things are definitely better eight days post op. But it’s still a long, long way from being discharged from the hospital.”
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
© 2006 MSNBC.com
Great news!! Still jingling!!
Absolutely wonderful, encouraging news indeed! Godspeed Barbaro! 
Go Barbaro!
Great news, keeping Barbaro in my prayers. You are doing great big guy!
Yeah! Glad to see some good news and thanks to everyone who is posting updates and links.
Yeah!!! Go Barbaro! Go Dr. Dean! Thanks for the update I had not heard anything for the last couple of days and was hoping that ‘no news was good news’ !!
Today’s Tim Woolley Racing Blog Update:
Update 41: Another good night for Barbaro (tuesday night). I galloped past Michael Matz on the track and asked him how Barbaro did last night, and he replied: “Everything is excellent”.
update 7:40 am, Fair Hill Clockers Stand.
Update 40: Spoke with Peter Brette tonight (tuesday evening). He decided not to visit Barbaro today given how busy things were likely to be with Edgar’s visit and the media conference. We chatted about the current state of Barbaro and the importance of remembering that while everything thus far has been very positive, it is still a 50 - 50 sitiuation (or 51 - 49 as noted in the press conference today.) Clearly the decision not to remove the cast today is very positive, but there is still along way to go. I also saw Peter on Barbaro’s little half brother, by Quiet American, this morning on the horsepath coming back from the track.
Update 39: Photos of Edgar Prado with Barbaro.(thanks Lisa) from his visit today (tuesday). Also, I keep meaning to add a link to the photos, taken by Barbara Livingston, of Barbaro training at Fair Hill. We met Barbara during her brief visit to Fair Hill.
Update 38: The Bloodhorse (Steve Haskin) has an excellent update on his condition from today: Barbaro Recovering; Jockey Prado Visits. As we noted earlier, the cast has yet to be removed. From the Bloodhorse article:
Richardson said May 30 that the first nine days have gone incredibly well. “He’s actually done far better than we could have ever hoped, so far,” Richardson said. "He’s perfectly comfortable and all his vital signs are normal. His blood work is good, and basically, at this moment, he could not look any better in terms of his medical condition. His prognosis is much better than it was, but he still has a long way to go.
“When we change his cast will literally be a day-by-day decision. Right now, this horse is walking so well on his limb, he willingly rests his left hind, and he he’s very active walking around his stall. So, my inclination at this point is go day-by-day. There’s no compelling reason to remove the cast. If he continues to look as good as he does he can continue to wear this cast for several more weeks. It has been a surprisingly good-fitting cast considering I felt there would be a little bit of loosening or swelling above the cast, neither of which occurred.”
Originally, Richardson had stated that Barbaro’s chances of recovery were 50-50. He jokingly said it is "now officially 51%. “Seriously, every day that goes by is a big day. In terms of some of the complications, certain ones are more likely to rear their head in the earlier stages of the convalescence, such as infection. Laminitis or failure to fixation both can occur at later dates. There’s no question that things are much better now in terms of prognosis, but he’s still a long, long way from being discharged from the hospital.”
Barbaro is being quite the patient! He must be loving all the attention he’s receiving, so that must be keeping him from getting bored and causing trouble.
Also, there was a segment on GMA this morning showing the footage of Prado’s visit yesterday as well as the owners speaking about the volumes of get well wishers from all over. All looked well.
Rock on Barbaro!
The photos of Barbaro at Fair Hill by Barbara Livingston are breathtaking! THANK YOU!
I love the pictures of Edgar visiting Bobby! Thanks for the links and I am still jingling for him.
Rock on Bobby, you are a King in the Sport of Kings! :sadsmile:
Lots of jingles for Barbaro!
More update on the latest update: From The Blood-Horse, www.BloodHorse.com.
by: Steve Haskin
May 2006 Article # 6996
BREAKING NEWS:
Barbaro may have been kicked during race!
Michael Matz said he was informed by Pimlico officials that a frame-by-frame study of the incident shows Barbaro being struck by Brother Derek just before the accident.
“The stewards and Dr. David Zipf, watched the slow motion replay,” Matz said. “They said it looked like Brother Derek’s right foot hit him in the pastern. The front foot was stuck way out and as soon as it happened he head went up. If he was struck, he suffered no cuts at all. They basically said they’re 80% sure he was hit someplace where he went off balance. We thought the condylar fracture might have happened first, but maybe it was just the opposite where the pastern went first and then it went up to the condylar fracture.”
Although Matz said he wasn’t able to see it as clearly as Pimlico officials, Lou Raffetto, the track’s president and chief operating officer, said it was “pretty conclusive.”
“We didn’t want to make a big deal of this, because what happened happened, and you can’t change that,” Raffetto said. "We’re not trying to defend ourselves; we don’t feel we have anything to defend. We just watched it and sent the DVD to Michael, and he hasn’t had the time to really look at it carefully. You have to look at it frame by frame to really appreciate it, which is what we did. We watched the head-on, the pan, and the stills.
"It’s clear that Barbaro is inside of Sweetnorthernsaint in the three path before they get to the shadow of the building. And then he’s clearly behind him two jumps later, and you can see that he drifts out from the head-on. Then when you go to the pan, you can see Brother Derek two or three lengths behind him and running up to the field. He runs into a spot just as Barbaro drifts out into the same spot. As they come to where the shadow of the building crosses the track, near the eighth pole, you see Brother Derek reach out with his right front foot, and just when it appears to make contact with Barbaro’s right hind, Barbaro’s head goes up, and you see (Alex) Solis (on Brother Derek) pull out with his right shoulder. And when Barbaro’s head goes up, you can see his right hind leg twist out sideways and he puts the leg down awkwardly.
“By putting all the pieces together and watching it as closely as we did, we’re pretty confident that’s what happened. If this were pro football, they’d probably say it was inconclusive. It’s probably 80% so, but it doesn’t change anything. We just sent it to Michael to let him form his own conclusions. You talk about the racing gods, if Barbaro doesn’t drift out this never happens. If Brother Derek doesn’t break slowly this never happens.”
When asked about Pimlico’s findings, Prado said, “It’s a mystery no one will ever know for sure. There’s nothing we can do about the past. We just have to look to the future.”
Solis, however, refuted Pimlico’s claim. “There’s no way he could have struck Barbaro; I would have felt it,” Solis said May 30. “We were close behind him, but not that close. Getting that close to him and going that speed, if I had struck him I would have gone down. It was just one of those things that happened. I could hear his leg snap, and thank God I had enough space and time to get out of there. Luckily I wasn’t that close to him and I was able to react quickly. Horses are like any other athlete. You can have a basketball player going for a rebound and he twists or breaks his leg. And you’ve got skiers going over jumps and breaking bones. It happens.”
As for Barbaro’s mental condition, Richardson said the colt “couldn’t look a whole lot better in that regard. He’s very active in his stall, and when a horse walks by the outside window, he’s peeking out there trying to see who it is. If you were to look at this horse, I believe an objective person would not believe that this horse looks depressed. Michael Matz and (owners) Roy and Gretchen Jackson have been here every day and have looked the horse over, and I think they’d agree that he’s bright and happy.”
Richardson also said it is possible for Barbaro to go two or three months and still not be completely healed. "There are multiple elements to this injury, and to be perfect he’s got to fuse his fetlock joint and his pastern joint, and we have to make sure he has no major problems with infection, drainage from the site, and foundering from the other side. So those things still could go wrong even at two or three months out.
“It is possible for his bones to heal to the point where they’re very, very strong. What won’t function on him is that he won’t have normal mobility. He will never be able to do a dressage test, and he won’t be able to gallop strongly or jump. At the very best, he’ll have a hitch in his giddy-up. He will not be quite right, but there are lots of horses who can walk, trot, canter, gallop, spin around, and somewhat importantly, mount a mare; those things that you use your hind legs for. Yes, it is possible he’ll can be active enough to do all that, but we’re not even close to being at that point yet.”
Matz is amazed at the amount of support he and everyone connected with the horse has been getting, and the number of e-mails that have come pouring in to the horse from all around the world. “I’ll bet we received more than a thousand e-mails, and letters are coming in all the time,” he said.
“I might never get another horse as good as him,” Matz said, "but I look at this way: I’m lucky enough to have had him when I did. It’s tough, but we just have to go on, and hopefully, we’ll get there again.
OOPS! I just noticed that there is a thread on Brother Derek with this story. But like me, perhaps
others won’t realize that thread is connected to Barbaro so I’ll let this one stand.
Go Barbaro GO!!! Now THAT is the TB heart we all talk so lovingly about, even we sport horse folks. 
Thanks, Tim Woolley!
Update 47: New Bolton Center’s press release today confirms Barbaro’s excellent condition:
Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro’s condition is excellent today, according to Chief of Surgery Dean W. Richardson, “He looks great and everything is fine.”
The press release also goes on to discuss his breeding prognosis if he does recover from this tragic accident. Many have asked if we plan to continue providing updates. The short answer is: absolutely. As long as we are able to get direct access to updates from those close to the situation, we will publish them as we know them.
Update 46: Barbaro had another good night last night (wednesday night.) Dr. Richardson called Michael Matz with the news as usual this morning.
update: 7:35 am thursday AM, Fair Hill Clockers Stand
Update 45: Neat video from NBC10.com that shows Barbaro moving around and his comfort putting weight on his injured leg. The article also discusses the “plans” for the cast:
Dr. Dean Richardson said Wednesday that he is continuing his daily assessment of Barbaro’s cast on his right hind leg. Barbaro continues to do well, and his vital signs and appetite remain good.
Richardson will decide each morning whether to change the fiberglass cast that runs from Barbaro’s right hock to hoof. It could happen soon, or in several weeks.
Update 44: Just spoke to Peter Brette and Barbaro continues to do very well. He visited him again this afternoon (wednesday afternoon) and said Barbaro is in great form, he looked really well and is very happy. He could not be doing better at this stage. Please continue to leave your thoughts, comments and wishes.
Update 43: We have added more Barbaro pictures, taken the tuesday before the Preakness (Jennifer Duffy). I wanted to take this chance to thank Eliza at Olive Tree Media for her work on this site. She designed the site, is supporting it while we are covering Barbaro (which has meant changing servers and other technical things while the traffic has increased substantially), and uploads all our images (way beyond the tech. capabilities of me). I also wanted to mention that ESPN was at Fair Hill this morning. I think they were doing some coverage on Barbaro’s little brother, but certainly they were covering Michael Matz’s string.
Update 42: Sheila asks (in the comments) when the recovery moves beyond a day-to-day situation. Part of answer seems to appear in the Daily racing Form’s coverage of yesterday’s visit of Edgar Prado.
“Catastrophic infections usually occur within 10 to 14 days,” Richardson said. "Laminitis, or a failure of fixation, could occur at a later date. There’s no question that things are much better, but he’s still a long, long way from being discharged.
“To be perfect, you have to fuse the fetlock and pastern. There has to be no infection. All these bad things could still happen. But bone is the only tissue in the body that can heal and be truly stronger. He won’t have normal mobility, but the bone will be very strong.”
Thus it seems we are still in the former period (10 days post surgery) but with only a few days to go.
Jade McCarthy
Who is she?
With thanks from Tim Woolley’s Racing Blog:
Update 49: Spoke to Peter Brette late afternoon, and while he did not visit today, presumes all is well based on what he had heard for the day. There is a chance, all being well, I (Tim) may get to visit Barbaro tomorrow with Peter.
Last year I was in the starting gate schooling a horse, when the trainer of the horse I was riding (Chloe Carroll) turned to Michael Matz and asked him if he had any Derby horses. He said he might have a couple, a Fusaichi Pegasus and one running at Laurel that following weekend (November 19). Can you guess the latter ?
Update 48: A nice article about Peter Brette from the Thoroughbred Times: Visits with Barbaro good therapy for anguished Brette (thanks Lisa). We have been fortunate to hear directly from Peter after his Barbaro visits. A couple of excerpts from the article:
Regular trips to the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center and Barbaro’s continued progress on a long, perilous road to recovery have been therapeutic for Brette, whose attachment to the stable star grew stronger as they traveled on an extended road trip from their home base at Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Maryland to Southern Florida to Central Kentucky.
and…
“Hopefully, we have a happy ending,” Brette said. “He certainly captured the hearts and imaginations of many people.”
Again, with thanks to Tim Woolley’s page…
This is a great article on Barbaro’s typical day now…
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/sports/14718635.htm
One of the things I found most positive is they stopped antibiotics on Tuesday.
Go Barbaro!
[B]With continued thanks from Tim Woolley:
[/B]Update 50: Great article from twincities.com: Derby winner is just a horse in a stall which includes a really interesting timeline to Barbaro’s day (thanks Gloria). A quick excerpt:
9-11a: Visitors show up, including owners Gretchen and Roy Jackson, Matz and Brette. Prado visited Tuesday.
10 a.m. - Visual check.
11 a.m. - Grooming.
12 p.m.: Receives abbreviated exam - heart, lungs, GI tract, and legs checked … walks around stall … fresh straw and wood shavings put down in stall … Antibiotics were given first two weeks, but were stopped Tuesday … medications administered as needed.
It appears another milestone was reached on tuesday, ending the antibiotics.
We have also added a couple more Barbaro pictures.
Update 51: Another good night last night (thursday night) for Barbaro. Spoke to Michael Matz and others in the barn this morning.
update: Friday 7:40 am, Fair Hill Clockers Stand
Update 52: Barbaro has clearly touched many people, you only need to read a few of the comments on this site to realize this (and please keep them coming). The following story is further testament to the reach of those who really care.
Kathy Anderson (Barbaro’s Fair Hill vet) was visiting Barbaro on wedneday at New Bolton Center. As she was hanging out with him she heard an ‘entourage’ coming. It was two soldiers, from Fort Benning, GA (or at least that is where she thinks they were from) coming to present Barbaro with an American flag. This flag had been flown in Iraq for nine hours and eleven minutes. It was then flown over to the US for these soldiers to present to Barbaro: to honour the wounded warrior Barbaro!
Update 53: New Bolton Center’s release today confirms Barbaro continues to do well:
Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro continues to improve daily as he recovers from a shattered hind leg sustained at the Preakness on May 20. “I’m very pleased with the progress Barbaro is making,” said Chief of Surgery Dean W. Richardson. “Everything is fine.”
They also include a q and a, with the following questions:
[I]
- In addition to hay, what, if anything, is he being fed? Do you have a special diet for cases like his?
- How do you keep water from entering the cast while a horse is awakening from anesthesia?
- Can he be groomed, or would that be too stimulating?
- What size is his stall?
- If he survives this ordeal and it is eventually deemed safe for him to be in a paddock, how would his leg be protected and supported? Will his hoof touch the ground in the normal position?[/I]
Update 54: The Bloodhorse has a nice story on Dr. Dean Richardson: With Famous Equine Patient, Barbaro’s Vet Gains Celebrity Status, while Delaware Online covers his Fair Hill vet, Dr. Kathy Anderson: Fair Hill vet pulls for Barbaro. A quote from each:
On Richardson:
He knew without asking that he would be the surgeon to repair Barbaro. He had worked before with trainer Michael Matz, who lives down the road, as do owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson. He also knew he didn’t have to rush back.
“Roy Jackson offered to send a chartered jet to pick me up,” he said. “I told him he didn’t have to.”
A suddenly lame horse needs time to figure out that something is wrong, so it doesn’t panic after surgery when confronted with being unable to stand normally, Richardson said. He operated the next day.
Jackson credits Richardson with saving his horse’s life.
“I just don’t know if any other doctor could have done the same thing,” Jackson said. “He’s done a lot of good things over the years. He just didn’t get this kind of recognition.”
On Anderson:
Matz and Brette value Anderson’s role in their racing operation.
“She is just very good and always on the same page with us,” Matz said. “She takes care of all our horses and was wonderful with Barbaro.”
Update 55: Just spoke with Peter Brette who visited Barbaro today (friday afternoon). He is still doing very well, they are all very pleased with him. He is in good form and had another bath today (which he enjoyed). I was hoping to go with Peter today (as noted earlier) but some things came up so hopefully sometime later next week.
