Springside's Surgery

Barbaro's now famous surgeon, Dean Richardson, is back in the news again, having performed successful surgery on Springside, the 2 year old filly who sustained a fracture in her right front pastern after winning the Demoiselle Stakes at Aqueduct Nov. 29.

So far so good. "The surgery went very well," owner Jim Sapara told The Blood-Horse. "She walked back to her stall after they put her in the pool to wake up, and she was feeding at the time of the call."

Infection is the biggest threat to her recovery but barring that, the horse is expected to be fine. Probably not fine enough to race again (you never know) but certainly fine enough to procreate.

A couple of things struck me about this story. The first is how "routine" repairs like this have become. Screws were inserted into the bone to stabilize it; the recovery pool was used to lessen the possibility of damage when she woke up, and the horse was, amazingly, walked back to her stall where she ate like it was just another day at the office. Ten years ago, I don't think this surgery would have seemed so run-of-the-mill. Certainly fifteen years ago, it might not have even been attempted.

The other thing is the day off between injury and surgery--that all important day for the horse to regain stability after suffering trauma so that the effects of the surgery--traumatic in itself--are minimized. Perhaps that is one of the greatest lessons of veterinary medicine--that horses do better when they are not rushed from the track to the operating table. Even in Barbaro's case, it was important to stabilize him before subjecting him to surgery.

How amazing that we who followed Barbaro's story know this drill all too well. We can see the images associated with the recovery pool and the walk back to the stall. We know Springside is in the most capable of hands and we understand the day to day nature of her projected 8 week recovery.

Talk about a legacy....