Sunline

From TC

Posted at one of the Australian forums where her former strapper, Claire Bird, posts. The news is good:

For anyone interested I went to see Sunline yesterday (30/12/08) in New Zealand and she is doing well.

She is very light but has to be that way due to not being able to take too much weight on her feet. She looks a million times better than when I saw her when it all first happened. Very bright in the eye and her coat looks pretty good considering what she has been through. The vets think she should be able to get in foal next season with no problems.

The McKees, farriers and vets should be commened for what they have done for her as it would have been easy just to put her down - but they have made sure she has not suffered - at great expense - and are doing all they can to make her life a happy and pain free one.

 
Oh, so now they're starving her and planning to put her in foal next season - all in the name of kindness? Poor mite should have been put down long ago.
 
Shadow Leader said:
Oh, so now they're starving her and planning to put her in foal next season - all in the name of kindness? Poor mite should have been put down long ago.
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Hmmm.. harsh, the horse is better and its commo practice, as well you know, to get a horses weight down to aid the recovery. I presume they're expecting a full recovery if they're putting her in foal (in 9 months approx ,as Gareth pointed out) They don't sound like people who are doing it for the money.
 
I'm torn on this one - the mare is something very special and if she were mine, I would very much want a foal from her. On the other hand, having a chronic laminitic in my yard, I really do know how painful if can be for them. In my mare's case, the fact that she loves life and is usually a happy and cheery sort means I have not put her down - while she continues to be manageable, she'll live!

The pragmatic route would be for the Australian Horseracing authorities to permit the mare to be flushed and if she produces some fertilised embryos, to try and get a recipient mare to carry them for her. I can't see anything wrong with special exemptions for outstanding mares myself. Tradition can be fine but sometimes it acts against the best interests of both animal and owners.
 
Sounds like she is healthy and well (plenty of horses are "light" at different stage) so connections should be applauded. I would like to see her have another season off from having a foal.
 
I'm not saying they did it for the money, Sheikh - more out of a misguided sense of selfishness in that they don't want to see her die. You see it all the time - I have on several occasions berated my father for keeping his elderly springer alive for probably a year longer than he should have - he had her operated on a year or so before her death when he should have had her put down. He thought he was doing the best thing for her - when in fact the kindest thing was to have had her put to sleep.

Animals don't understand, remember - they don't know that the pain they are going through is going to help them in the long run nor do they know whether or if it is going to stop. All they know is the pain.
 
I wouldn't keep a mare alive that was in constant pain but from the info we where given she appears to be happy.I suppose they'll have to make a call later as to how a pregnancy would affect her.
 
Shadow Leader said:
Animals don't understand, remember - they don't know that the pain they are going through is going to help them in the long run nor do they know whether or if it is going to stop. All they know is the pain.
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A very good point in itself, quite aside from this particular emotional debate.
 
It is a good point but remember you are seeing it from a human's point of view. Animals don't question pain - they either accept it and live or they give up and die. I see that frequently with the dairy herd. There are downer cows that simply give up, in spite of being lifted or made as comfortable as possible. There are others that simply don't want to give in, are far worse and go on to survive and complete a few more lactations.

What is the same as the human race is that it's impossible and dangerous to make generalisations. What my cob mare accepts, my thoroughbreds wouldn't and I wouldn't even contemplate them living a similar life to her.
 
Well said Songsheet, and I agree that an exception should be made in this case for a monitored surrogate pregancy; but I imagine they are frightened of opening a whole can of worms if they let one breeder do it.

I'd also agree I'd prefer to see her have the year off and make a FULL recovery before she attempts to carry the weight of a foal, with all the extra condition she'd need to put on first to do that successfully.
 
Who says all surgery shouldn't be performed? It's all about weighing up the amount of pain an animal is in at that precise time, how much pain they're going to have to subsequently endure and for how long, whether they are likely to survive said surgery, the likely percentage call of recovery and the quality of life they are likely to endure afterwards.

Songsheet, you make a good point but it still doesn't dispute the fact that if they do accept it and not die they are still suffering throughout.

This animal has been suffering for so long now and been through so much that I think it would most likely have been kinder to have put her to sleep in the first place.

It's not a nice idea, but if an animal is suffering you have to weight up all the options and make the right decision for the animal, not for yourself. Livestock is deadstock, as they say.
 
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Shadow Leader said:
Who says all surgery shouldn't be performed? It's all about weighing up the amount of pain an animal is in at that precise time, how much pain they're going to have to subsequently endure and for how long, whether they are likely to survive said surgery, the likely percentage call of recovery and the quality of life they are likely to endure afterwards.
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Worth pointing out that none of us are privy to any of this and thus are essentially speculating on a situation we know very little about.

I would hope the owners will do what's best by the mare, whatever that may be.
 
Galileo said:
So why bother with any surgury or treatment for any animal in that case.
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No suggesting it's an absolute Gal, and Songsheet illustrates the other side of the argument very well. We can neither treat animals as if they are human nor presume they are identical in their outlook. I recently insisted that my mare be saved after a bad accident when I was advised (retrospectively) that it may have been better to have her put down. Her attitude to the injury and obvious good temperament have convinced me that I made the right decision, but I realise fully that with a different animal, the decision should have been different.
 
Every animal is different, I guess, and what is right for one is totally wrong for another. Only time will tell re SUNLINE of course - she may well find the weight of foal to be too much and that will be that.
 
Songsheet said:
Every animal is different, I guess, and what is right for one is totally wrong for another. Only time will tell re SUNLINE of course - she may well find the weight of foal to be too much and that will be that.
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Which is exactly my point, every animal is different. We do not know the pain level previously and currently the horse went through, we do not know how healthy or not the animal is right now.

It is impossible (I would have thought) for any of us to give an informed opinion on her injury and treatment with only a vague description of her situation.

Anyways I am glad to read she is doing well (relatively at least) and hope it continues.
 
I fully appreciate that trackside, and no, I don't know the full circumstances. I do however know that the mare has endured severe and traumatising surgery and I would imagine that she's been in pain for a long time now.

I tend to hold quite definite views on sick and injured animals and would like to think that in such a situation similar to this I'd have the courage to stick to my guns and have the animal put down.

That said, I can see why Rory saved his mare and throughout the operation and for days afterwards I spent a long time thinking on what I'd have done were it one of mine in that accident. Suffice to say I think that I too would have insisted on the surgery but although the injury looked horrific a lot of that was aesthetic and there was an excellent outlook for her quality of life afterwards. Having been on her a few times when she has been rearing and leaping about recently I can happily report that she has shown no ill-effects!
 
My thoughts are with Sunline and I really hope she gets some quality of life to make all she has endured worthwhile.

It's a terrible decision to have to make and I do not envy anyone who does make this kind of decision regarding their horse, or dog or cat.

I agree with most on here re thoughts expressed, each animal, like poeple, is different and the circumstances depend upon how they are effected and how good a patient they are - and what the final outlook is expected to be. (sorry poor grammar there ....)

Two ex racers I was involved with were put down because of injuries that re-occured. Neither of them would have been able to return to full health, would have had to be companions only, and both had previously endured long box rest which they did not take well at all. It broke my heart to lose them both, but I still feel we did what was best for them.

In another situ I would act differently.
 
Can't be arsed to trawl back through the threads about her but I see she's been euthanized for her laminitis.
Champion racemare
Sunline put down

By Bloodstock World Staff7.13AM 1 MAY 2009
THE champion New Zealand mare Sunline has been put down at her owner's stud in Takinini, New Zealand. She had been suffering from laminitis, a disease which causes the tissues (laminae) that bond the hoof wall to bones in the horse's hoof to weaken and eventually fail.
Stephen McKee, who trained the mare with his father Trevor and became her joint-owner after her retirement, said that they exhausted all avenues to save the 13-year-old mare and were left with no option but to have her humanely put down. She had been suffering from the problem since 2008.
A daughter of Desert Sun, Sunline won 32 races, including 13 Group 1 races and A$11,351,607 in earnings in a 48-start career. She was the first Australasian-trained horse to top A$10 million in prize-money.
Her victories included two Cox Plates (1999, 2000), two Doncaster Handicaps (1999, 2002), two Coolmore Classics (2000, 2002) and the 2000 Hong Kong Mile.

According to the Herald Sun, RicRedden, a US expert on laminitis, had visited the mare at the McKee's farm.

"It was Ric's advice that she had lost all quality of life due to the debilitating disease," Trevor McKee told the newspaper.
Sunline's first foal, Sunstrike, a filly by Rock Of Gibraltar, won her first race in February, while her second foal Sun Ruler, a colt by Zabeel who cost NZ$2 million and is her only offspring to have gone through a sale ring, won his first race last week.
She has also produced a sister to Sunstrike and another filly by Hussonet.

What a shame but the right decision and at least she's left a couple of daughters to carry on the line. A stunning racemare.
 
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