Derby winner begins road to recovery

[MikeNearMcChord]

KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. (AP) - Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro came out of a day-long surgery Sunday to repair three broken bones in his right rear leg and "practically jogged back to the stall," the colt's surgeon said.



At this moment "he is extremely comfortable in the leg," said Dr. Dean Richardson, who stressed before the marathon procedure that he's never worked on so many catastrophic injuries to one horse.

http://msn.foxsports.com/horseracing/story/5626812

[WindRavenX]

1. personally

The more I see of these races, the less I like.
The poor horses :(

[Demoiselle]

4. I know what you mean, Wind Raven

I can't resist watching those gorgeous animals...but I'm always nervous for them. I still remember when the wonderful filly
Ruffian broke down. It's a terribly dangerous sport, and the horses have no choice, of course.
.this Saturday I forgot the Preakness was on, and I'm glad I wasn't watching.
Trouble is, if they don't race them, they'll just destroy the whole breed, most likely.
When I win the lottery, I'll open a retirement farm for retired, has-been and never-was race horses. They'll spend
long fat lives as lawn ornaments and avoid the dogmeat plant and the glue factory.. Now all I have to do is
win the lottery.

[Skittles]

8. Ruffian

I never watched another race after that one

[Judi Lynn]

2. Thank you, MikeNearMcChord . Hope he pulls through, and gets to live to

a healthy nice old age.

Yours is the first good news I've heard of this guy. Appreciate it.

Welcome to D.U.! :hi: :hi: :hi:

[MikeNearMcChord]

3. Thank You, JudiLynn

I think that Edgar Prado, the jockey should be given props for his quick thinking that stopped the horse from running and damaging himself even more. Very good news at a time there seems so little.

[progressivebydesign]

5. I'm so glad to hear that he's mending.

I still cannot comprehend why horses need to be put to death if they break a leg.. I was heartbroken when I heard of the injury. I'm not a racing fan, it's too hard on the horses, and like greyhound racing, creates far too many problems for the animals that can't cut it.

[zalinda]

7. From what I understand, horses cannot lie down

for a long time, they must stand most of the day. Because of this, mending broken legs and then rehabbing them is very expensive and tricky, if at all possible. They now have slings which can help horses keep upright, and there are special horse swimming pools for PT.

One of the reasons this horse is being taken care of so well is that he is a stallion. He won 6 races in a row and if he won today it would be his 7th and he would become a $50 million dollar horse, just for his sperm.

zalinda

[BrklynLiberal]

6. Thank you for posting the good news.

Thoroughbreds are much more delicate than they used to be.
Article in Wikipedia about Ruffian tragedy goes into it.

Ruffian. The greatest female racehorse in history.

It was a "battle of the sexes", a match race between Ruffian and that year's Kentucky Derby winner, Foolish Pleasure

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruffian_%28horse%29

The first quarter-mile (402 m) was run in a blazingly fast 22 1/5 seconds, Ruffian ahead by a nose. Little more than a furlong (201 m) later, Ruffian was in front by half a length when both sesamoid bones in her right foreleg snapped. Her jockey, Jacinto Vasquez, tried to pull her up, but she ran on for another 50 yards (46 m), apparently unwilling to give up the race.

She was immediately attended to by a team of four veterinarians and an orthopedic surgeon, and underwent an emergency operation lasting 12 hours. Tragically, when the anesthesia wore off after the surgery, she thrashed about wildly on the floor of a padded recovery stall despite the efforts of numerous attendants, breaking the cast and causing even more catastrophic damage to her injured leg. The medical team, realizing that further surgery was useless, euthanized her shortly afterwards.

Ruffian's legacy is complex. Her breakdown and tragic death led to a public outcry for more humane treatment of racehorses. One result was that medications, such as Lasix for bleeding and corticosteroids for inflammation and pain management, came into common use in racehorses. While helping the horses in the short term, the increased use of medications at the track had a downside, as many horses were raced while injured. It can be argued that thoroughbreds are becoming more delicate as a result; racehorses today run only half as many starts before retirement as did their counterparts 50 years ago. Some of this effect is likely also due to breeding practices that select for horses likely to have short, brilliant careers—like Ruffian's—instead of the traditional racing career which might have lasted several years. Indeed, Ruffian's bloodline may be considered at least partly to blame for her broken leg; her sire, Reviewer, suffered three breakdowns.