It was, by all accounts, a peaceful ending to what had sometimes been an epic struggle to keep the horse that America held on to as its own comfortable, happy, and on track to a normal, if not celebrity, equine life.

Dean Richardson, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, chief of surgery at the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center, and the man made famous over the past eight months as “Barbaro’s veterinarian,” held a press conference today (Jan. 29), explaining the specifics of the Kentucky Derby winner’s final days.

The setback in what had otherwise been a remarkable recovery from multiple fractures sustained in the May 20 Preakness came earlier this month, when Barbaro became uncomfortable on his laminitic left hind hoof. Veterinarians had applied a foot cast to aid coffin bone realignment a week earlier. The discomfort prompted Richardson to remove more of the left hind hoof’s wall and cut the deep digital flexor tendon to relieve pressure on the coffin bone. Veterinarians also put a cast back on the right hind lower limb for additional support.

During this period of discomfort, Barbaro began putting more of his weight onto the right hind hoof, causing a bruise that became an abscess. To manage the abscess, veterinarians put an external fixation device (which takes weight off the hoof via steel pins through the cannon bone) on the right leg Saturday. The concerns were that the pins would cause the bones in that leg to fracture once again, or that by taking weight off both hind limbs, the front feet would develop laminitis. Richardson confirmed today that Barbaro developed laminitis in both front hooves