Despite receiving tens of thousands of cards, letters, gifts and other messages after breaking his right hind leg at the Preakness Stakes, Kentucky Derby-winner Barbaro has yet to respond to a single get-well note in the nearly two weeks since his injury – causing many of his supporters to turn against him.

            “I drove two hours to the animal hospital where Barbaro’s surgery took place, and left a note and balloons outside of the gate for him,” said Claire Howser, a 48-year-old single woman who was taken by the horse’s saga. “It wasn’t something I had to do, you know. I just wanted him to know that he had my support. But it’s going on two weeks now and I haven’t heard anything – not a thank you note, not an acknowledgement of receipt, nothing. It’s pretty rude, in my opinion.”

            Peter Berner, a Kentucky man who mailed Barbaro a get-well cake and left him numerous messages on the online boards set up for the injured horse, said his faith in the once-great champion is starting to wane.

            “It would be one thing if he was still racing and training for Belmont, but he’s just been standing around doing nothing for the past two weeks,” said Berner. “It’s not like he doesn’t have time to pick up a pen and write back. I mean, I go out of my way to bake a cake for a horse, and I pour my heart out to him in my notes, and what do I get in return? Nothing. I almost feel stupid for having put myself out there.”

            While most of Barbaro’s well-wishers are growing angry with him, others at least are willing to give the horse the benefit of the doubt.

            “Maybe it’s not customary for horses to send out thank-you notes within two weeks,” said Margerie Smith, who took a day off from work to hold stand outside Barbaro’s hospital and pray for him on the day of his surgery. “Maybe they take longer. And I’m sure he has a lot of people to get back to. But still, you’d think by now I would have at least heard something. I hope at least he read my letters. Maybe that’s the problem. Maybe his handlers never passed my notes along because they want him all to themselves.”

            Michael Matz, Barbaro’s trainer, says all the support the horse has received has been much appreciated by the animal, but he’s not sure how much help – if any – they have been to the horse’s recovery.

            “Barbaro has to focus his energies on getting healthy right now,” said Matz, “plus, uh, he can’t really read. You know, because he’s a horse. We showed him some of the cards, but he didn’t really seem to acknowledge them, other than blinking a few times and then having three gigantic lumps of crap fall out of his butt onto the floor of his stall. But I think that was just because of his medication, and not in any way to do with the cards. Who knows, though – maybe he’s a magical horse who can read and understands everything that is happening to him. Yeah, that’s probably it.”