Barbaro - Thoroughbred
- morethanpethk
- Jul 19
- 6 min read
Updated: Jul 23
HIGHLIGHTS
Foaled April 29, 2003 - Died January 29, 2007 (4yo)
The Incident: May 20, 2006 (at 3yo) -US
The Injury: Barbaro suffered more than 20 fractures in his right hind leg, - a broken cannon bone above the pastern, a broken sesamoid bone behind the fetlock, and a broken long pastern bone below the fetlock. The fetlock joint was dislocated, and his foot was left dangling loosely.
The Leading Surgeon: Dr. Dean W. Richardson
The Outcome: A failure - Barbaro underwent five surgeries, but due to complications in his other legs and hooves, he was ultimately euthanised on January 29, 2007.
ABOUT THE HORSE
Barbaro is a big, powerful, masculine colt. He is also intelligent with a dominant but not vicious personality. He won by 6 ½ lengths in a hand ride in Kentucky Derby, the largest winning margin recorded on 6th May 2006 when he was 3yo.
THE INCIDENT – 20 May 2006 (at 3yo)
Two weeks later on Preakness Stakes, an accident of false start ended his racing career. It was a frightening moment when Barbaro waiting in gate for the race to being, he lunged forward and crashed through the starting gate, slamming his head against the metal retractable door. He was soon pulled up and reloaded. As the race restarted, Barbaro broke cleanly but suffered a catastrophic injury as the horses passed the grandstand shortly after the start. The jockey immediately pulled the horse up and brought him to a gentle stop until track attendants could arrive.
Barbaro broke his right hind leg in more than 20 places - a broken cannon bone above the pastern, a broken sesamoid bone behind the fetlock, and a broken long pastern bone below the fetlock. The fetlock joint was dislocated, and his foot was left dangling loosely. The fracture is horrible, but none of the wounds came through the skin. His owners decided to try to save him by all means, veterinarians believed that surgery is possible.
THE SAVING EFFORT – led by Dr. Dean W. Richardson
In the next day, Barbaro underwent a 5-hour surgery. The surgical team implanted a 16-hole Synthes Stainless Steel Locking Compression Plate (LCP) and 27 titanium screws into his injured leg to span the comminuted fracture and joints, to provide maximum strength. A bone graft from the horse’s pelvis replaced pieces of his bone that had shattered. A fiberglass cast with extra padding was placed over the LCP to further protect the construct.
After surgery, Barbaro was put into a recovery pool, prepared him to wake up from the anaesthesia in a pool of water where he could thrash around without injuring his other legs.
He calmly woke up in the next day morning, he stood and practically jogged to his stall, his appetite was good, he was able to comfortably put weight on the injured leg. The blood supply to the injury site was very good. His first week of recovery went well. The cast was then replaced on June 13 and again on July 3. Dr Richardson gave Barbaro a 50–50 chance of survival.
The fractures healed gradually after surgery and Barbaro was able to walk again on his limb around the stall and was quite active for his condition. The horse was doing better than expected with his daily therapy and exercise.
In the 1st week of July, complications arose, Barbaro had problems with both hind legs. He developed an abscess in his uninjured left foot, which was treated topically, but he carried a fever through the weekend and failed to put weight on his injured right foot for any significant time.
By 13 July, Barbaro had developed a severe case of laminitis in the left hind hoof, a potentially life-threatening affliction when he shifted weight to one hoof for extended periods to keep pressure off an injured hoof. A procedure called a hoof wall resection removed 80% of his left rear hoof. The remaining 20% of his hoof wall was attached to the coffin bone, but it was unclear how much of it would grow back. Both hind legs were in casts.
Barbaro was given a special support boot for his laminitis hoof and placed on painkillers; a support sling was brought into his stall to allow him to take the weight off his hooves for hours at a time.
On 8 August, Barbaro's broken right hind leg had fused to the point where the veterinarians would have replaced the cast with a brace if his left leg had been sound. The coronet band on his left leg appeared healthy and all signs were encouraging.
On 15 August, it was reported that Barbaro had been allowed to graze outside for the first time since his accident. Two days later, Barbaro was no longer using the sling to support his weight, and its use was discontinued.
On18 August, radiographs showed that his fractured right leg was almost completely fused.
By 26th September, it was decided that Barbaro's cast would not be replaced as long as he was comfortable in it. His left hind hoof had regrown about 18mm, and the support shoe had been replaced with a bandage. The hoof would have to grow to at least three times that length, a process that could take more than six months.
On 10 October, Barbaro's cast and protective shoe were changed. His left rear hoof was gradually improving from laminitis. There was good growth along the quarters closer to the heel, but months of healing were still required for the front of the hoof.
On 6 November, nearly six month after the accident, Barbaro reached another milestone when his cast was removed permanently and replaced with a splinted bandage. His laminitis hoof showed no new problem. But several months of growth would have been necessary before it could be further diagnosed.
By 12 December, Barbaro's bandage on his right hind leg was removed completely.
However, in early January 2007, the laminitis left hoof became the source of further complications. Then another section of the hoof was surgically removed. Updates over the next few days revealed that the cast had been reapplied to Barbaro's right hind leg for support. Aggressive pain management and the use of the support sling had been resumed. Nevertheless, Barbaro's condition was better than it had been the previous July.
By 10 January, Barbaro suffered a series of setbacks that would prove insurmountable. Part of the problem was related to the laminitis-stricken left hind hoof that had only partially regenerated. Though Dr. Richardson had tried a series of procedures to both realign the bone and encourage the outer wall of the hoof to regenerate, the growth was found uneven.
Dr. Richardson further performed a risky procedure by inserting two steel pins in the horse’s cannon bone to eliminate all weight from being borne on the foot. Two days later, Barbaro developed laminitis in his right front foot, that left him without a good leg to stand on.
By the time, the veterinarian team reached a point where it was going to be difficult for him to go on without pain. The veterinarians and owners finally concluded that Barbaro couldn’t be saved, and he was sadly euthanized on 29th January 2007 at age of 3yo.
REMEMBERING BARBARO
Barbaro’s remains was interred in front of an entrance to Churchill in 2008, with his bronze statue was place atop in 2009.
Barbaro’s injury brought attention and much-needed funding to laminitis research. Barbaro’s owner, The Jacksons, donated US$3 million to create a new endowed professorship in equine-disease research named for Dr. Dean Richardson. The National Thoroughbred Racing Association had also set up a research fund at the University Pennsylvania’s veterinary school in Barbaro’s memory.
A veterinary-medicine scholarship at the University of Florida was established in Barbaro’s honour.
THE LEARNING
Lesson learned from Barbaro’s injury, racetracks were installed with synthetic surfaces that is more forgiving to thoroughbreds’ fragile legs.
Barbaro’s injury and cause of death had raised concern amongst the horse racing practitioners. It was not the break in Barbaro's leg that necessitated his destruction, but the hoof disease laminitis. It was the excruciatingly painful laminitis that followed after surgery, Barbaro’s support limb laminitis was caused by over-stressing the good leg during recovery from an injury in the opposite limb.
The American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) ranked laminitis as the most important disease needing further research in 2009.
In a 2009 white paper, AAEP recommended a period of rest of at least 10 days between races for all horses to provide an opportunity to refresh and diminish the volume of persistent cyclic loading.
Source: Wikipedia - Barbaro
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