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One year ago today, Barbaro was sadly euthanized after a long battle with a shattered limb and laminitis.  While there are now many reports of the announcement of Barbaro’s ashes being returned to the spot of his spectacular victory in the Kentucky Derby, I feel that it would be an apt time to revisit the subject of laminitis.  While even a few years ago, a horse sustaining an injury like Barbaro did in the Preakness would have led to immediate euthanasia, great progress in veterinary medicine allowed Barbaro the fighting chance he deserved.  However, even with the amazing work of Barbaro’s surgeons in repairing the fractures, his life was cut short by the enigma that is laminitis. 

Laminitis is a disease of the hoof that causes separation of the hoof wall from its underlying attachments.  At best, laminitis is a short-term painful condition for a horse, while at worst, the entire hoof can come apart and the horse can literally step out of its hoof!  Ouch!  The main problem with this disease is that there is very little understood about how laminitis actually happens.  Researchers are hard at work identifying the underlying mechanisms and clinicians are busily experimenting with ways to treat laminitis once it starts.  Once the “pathogenesis” (how it happens) of laminitis is found, then the focus can move to preventing the disease.  As we all know, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure!  There are also many ways in which laminitis is initiated.  In ponies, it can be as simple as eating too much spring grass, or in horses, eating too much grain.  Sometimes diseases lead to laminitis or administration of certain drugs.  Barbaro got laminitis from putting too much weight on his left hind leg, in an effort to keep weight off of his broken right hind leg.  In short, there are so many ways in which a horse develops laminitis that it is extremely difficult to prevent.

 Fortunately, Barbaro’s legacy lives on, in the form of public interest and funding for research in laminitis.  The movement that he spurred brings hope for horses battling this debilitating disease.  While his ashes may be at Churchill Downs, his spirit will be with the horses helped by this new research and for the people that love them.