Barbaro feeling feisty following leg surgery

The 3-year-old has been showered with gifts.
KENNETT SQUARE, Pa. (AP) -- Barbaro is showing his usual feistiness as he recovers from his shattered leg in the Preakness, and the Kentucky Derby winner is being showered with gifts -- from flowers to religious ornaments.
The 3-year-old bay colt eagerly greeted a treat-bearing doctor Thursday morning, delighting on the fresh baby carrots she had brought.
"He approached the door like a good, healthy colt would," said Corinne Sweeney, executive hospital director at the George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center. "His ears [went] forward and he gobbled them down. And that's just what you want."
Mountains of gifts continued to pour into the hospital for the colt, who underwent six hours of surgery that left him with a plate and 27 screws in his right hind leg. They include flowers, food and several medals and statues of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals to Roman Catholics.
Barbaro remains in the hospital's intensive care unit, where visitors are limited to select staff and owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson. His vital signs, which are checked frequently, continue to look good.
"He looks great," said Dr. Dean Richardson, his surgeon. "He looks as good as he possibly could."
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