Barbaro, winner of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), 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, DVM, Dipl. ACVS. “Everything is fine.”


Barbaro remains in intensive care at the George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine’s New Bolton Center.


New Bolton Center has received many inquiries about Barbaro; below are the answers to some of those most frequently asked.


1. In addition to hay, what, if anything, is he being fed? Do you have a special diet for cases like his?
He’s being fed sweet feed (the same kind he ate while racing), three times a day. We do like to see cases like this gain or at least maintain their weight, so often we add corn oil to their diets, which Barbaro is getting in his grain. We also encourage him to eat alfalfa because it is high in calcium and helps with weight gain. Finally, he gets fresh grass several times daily, which we try to do for our horses that are stall-bound and can’t get out to graze

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