KENNETT SQUARE, Pa., May 23 — Barbaro's home now, and for months to come, is a 12-foot-by-12-foot stall in the climate-controlled intensive-care unit of the University of Pennsylvania's George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals. Barbaro has six neighbors, all horses, and around-the-clock care from an army of veterinarians and nurses.

Barbaro, who just last week had the run of a bucolic European-style training center in Maryland, is stall-bound on doctors' orders. The colt who zoomed past 19 rivals in the Kentucky Derby will not so much as see a walking ring for, well, who knows?

"Ask me that in a few months," Dean Richardson, the surgeon who used 27 screws to put Barbaro's rear right ankle back together, said Tuesday when asked when the colt might begin physical therapy.

"He's not happy to be in a stall in a sense that he wants to get out and run," Richardson said. "But horses adapt."

Beyond the confinement, Barbaro will have to adjust to a series of casts that will be placed on his right hind leg over the coming months if he is to survive the catastrophic injury he sustained at the opening of the Preakness Stakes.

"The plates and screws in this particular case, for this fracture, are not adequate to allow him to bear weight without the cast," Richardson said at a news conference. "There are many types of surgical repairs that we do that the plates and screws are enough to hold things together. In this case, this is far too complicated a fracture for that."

There was some good news: Barbaro managed to scratch his left ear with his left hind leg, he no longer needs heavy pain medications administered through an epidural and he is recovering from the trauma of surgery nicely.

"He's walking very well on the limb," said Richardson. "He's got absolutely normal vital signs today — all of his temperature, pulse, respiration, attitude, appetite."

Flowers and fruit baskets continued to arrive here, as did a three-inch stack of e-mail messages, and hospital officials announced that a substantial donation was received from an anonymous donor to benefit the entire facility on behalf of its famous patient.

Still, the colt's owners, Roy and Gretchen Jackson, acknowledged Barbaro's perilous medical condition with a mixture of melancholy and hope.

They have spared no expense on Barbaro's medical care and are longtime donors to the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center, which houses the hospital.

Roy Jackson's grandfather William Rockefeller was once the president of Standard Oil, and Jackson added to his family fortune as an owner of a minor league baseball team and as a sports agent. Gretchen Jackson is on the board of directors of Penn's veterinary school.

"We've run the gamut of emotions from the euphoria of the Kentucky Derby to the devastation of the Preakness," Roy Jackson said. "The sad part is that in Barbaro's case, that the American public won't get a chance to see him continue his racing career. Even though he ran so well in the Kentucky Derby, we probably didn't see his greatest race. But that's water over the dam. We're just glad we jumped a hurdle here so far."

Gretchen Jackson confessed that she had broken the golden rule of the industry: don't fall in love with a horse. She said she had done just that with Barbaro, whom she found "striking" and "sensible."

"My hope for him is that he lives a painless life," she said. "Whether that means he'll be able to be a stallion and we're lucky enough to see little Barbaros, that would be a supreme hope for him and for us. But also it must be a pain-free life."

Richardson reiterated that Barbaro was day-to-day in his short-term recovery, and month-to-month long-term. His blood work is being monitored for signs of infection, and he is wearing a padded glue-on shoe on his left rear hoof to prevent laminitis, an often-fatal disease sometimes brought on by uneven weight distribution.

"Good things take a long time to happen," Richardson said. "It will be a few months before we know if we have this thing even close to being healed."

In 2000, Dancinginmydreams sustained a similar injury in the Frizette Stakes at Belmont Park. The filly, bred and owned by the late Odgen Phipps, had her ankle joint fused and spent 13 months here. She recovered and her first foal is scheduled to run in a maiden race for colts on the day of the Belmont Stakes.

Neither the Jacksons nor Richardson are predicting a full recovery, much less the possibility that Barbaro, who is valued at $30 million as a stallion, will be able to breed. Jockey Club rules require that thoroughbreds must mate naturally. If Barbaro heals, it is unclear if his hind legs will be able to bear the weight necessary to mount a mare.

So Barbaro must grow accustomed to his 12-by-12 stall, and learn to endure the life of a recovering patient. The Jacksons visit often and treat him to carrots and mints.

Richardson said: "He won't leave here until he is a happy, walking horse that can be comfortable. He will not be out of the woods until he is healed."

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