Barbaro, winner of the 2006 Kentucky Derby, rolls his upper lip in this May 17 file photograph. - Reuters

KENNETT SQUARE, Pennsylvania (Reuters):

Life is, quite literally, a series of small steps for Barbaro.

Each day, the Kentucky Derby champion's quest for survival begins with a short walk around the veterinary hospital in eastern Pennsylvania where doctors monitor his every move.

The colt begins his 20-minute journey gingerly, testing his damaged hind legs like an unsure weanling. Barbaro gains confidence with each step and ends his walk with a firm gait.

"We're real happy with the condition of his right hind leg, the broken leg," said Dean Richardson, the gifted veterinarian who saved Barbaro's life during a six-hour operation. "It's healed to the point where, if he didn't have the left foot problem, we'd be ecstatic. But the remaining hurdle is still a very high hurdle."

Devastating injury

Barbaro's evolution from unbeaten Triple Crown threat to tragic figure came swiftly and publicly.

During the opening stretch of the Preakness Stakes in May, the Kentucky-bred son of Dynaformer shattered the bones in his right hind leg.

There was a collective gasp from the crowd at Pimlico Race Course at the sight of Barbaro lifting his damaged leg off the ground. Jockey Edgar Prado jumped off the dark bay colt and frantically tried to calm him down while the race continued.

"I've often thought of that as being a microcosm of life," Gretchen Jackson, who owns Barbaro with her husband Roy, told Reuters in an interview. "Here's somebody with a catastrophic injury and still life goes on ... We were all pretty much in shock watching it. It was unbelievable."

A horse with Barbaro's devastating injury normally would have been put down but the Jacksons were determined to save the colt if he could live pain-free.

Although his career as a racehorse ended at the Preakness, the life-saving operation at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center was a success. Twenty-seven screws were used to repair his fractured cannon, sesamoid and long pastern bones.

In July, however, Barbaro developed laminitis - a painful condition caused by putting excessive weight on one leg because of an injury to another - and Richardson was forced to remove the hoof wall from the horse's left leg.

Now, while the right leg is wrapped with nothing more than a soft bandage, it is the left leg that is the problem. Barbaro's survival is not guaranteed until he grows a new hoof.

Well-wishers worldwide

Millions of animal lovers, horse racing enthusiasts and everyday well-wishers are praying that Barbaro can ultimately leave the hospital and live out his life peacefully.

When Barbaro first injured his leg, several dozen fruit baskets arrived at the hospital each day along with stacks of get-well cards. Six months after the surgery, several baskets and perhaps two dozen cards still arrive daily.

The stack of mail on recent days revealed cards from places as far away as California, Arizona and Canada.

One woman from Michigan writes two cards each day. Almost all the cards and letters are addressed - and written - to Barbaro, not the hospital staff.

Jackson, who lives just down the road from the hospital, visits Barbaro twice a day. She offers a few theories as to why the public is fascinated with the three-year-old colt but concedes she really is not sure.

"It's amazing," she said. "I could say he's a splendid-looking horse. He has a presence to him. He has a very noble, gallant look about him when he's on the track, but it has to be more than that. I think people saw everybody support the horse and love it through its injury rather than discarding it," said Jackson. "Everything is disposable in society now and maybe people saw this as something that isn't disposable. It's valued."