Ban the Grand National?

[leighton]

The national hunt horses are schooled a lot of time during the season. They only run a handful of races a year for the rest of the year they are treated like the gods better than most animals. Katie Walsh said in her interview after the race that when she got it wrong ie getting too close the horse got her out of troble with its jumping. These horses are bred to jump and if you ask the people who are involved in the horse racing they love it for what it is. To be honest the National in my view has too many runners they should cut the field to 30 at most not 40. With the horse falling the risks are higher that other horses get brought down by the horse that fell because it has nowhere to go to get around it.

Banning the National will never ever happen. Every person has backed a horse in the National over the years and they will always do so. Banning 1 of the biggest highlights in the jumpping season is just madness and if that happens there will be uproar if it ever happen.

 

[TCIB]

Wrong pal. If the jockey approaches the fence wrong (out of stride) nine times out of ten the horse will refuse.

When a horse does fall you will usually find that it's not the jockeys fault.

I never mentioned blame or bad jumping so im not sure what your replying to here.
I did explain the fact you need to take extra steps to jump a gate and not just assume the horse will react to it properly, they won't.

The bottom line is horses do not like jumping, the fences are far to high and the the fact we are forcing these animals to make un-natural actions which in turn is a direct cause for them needing to be put down when it goes wrong simply for sport.

What's wrong with just having flat racing ?

We'll have to agree to disagree. I was only really asking peoples opinion on the national.

P.s. Jump horses love to jump!
ner ner de ner ner ;-)

Hehe indeed, wine time and that can only mean off topic time :D

Just on the actual event it's self i do think it is a very English thing and i like the tradition. :)

It is nice to also debate with people who will actually talk and debate and not see the thread pulled due to it needing to be "cleaned up" haha.

 

[mancmackem]

TBH I do like National Hunt racing, more-so hurdle chases that use fences like the below: -

Without National Hunt racing, you wouldn't have seen legends such as Desert Orchid, Kauto Star, Denman, Best Mate, Arkle. But the Grand National is a different subject for me, especially after today. I winced at some of the falls, and the other horses being brought down which was mainly caused by the height of the fences. I think my attachment to horse racing has grown over the past few years, and my opinion of the 'greatest steeplechase' has lowered year upon year.

I think the only thing that will lead to major changes to the Grand National is a jockey death.

 

[Citizen52]

Very emotive but i still think it's the greatest horse race in the world.
A fantastic spectacle. I'm not a bookies man, i didn't even have a bet today.
Ban boxing, ban formula 1, ban skiing, People killed in all these sports.

To be honest, while I love the tradition of it, I hate it at the same time. It's hard to win and you always seem to end up with fatalities.

Was reading the other day Aintree had spent about £250k improving the course, lowering a few fences etc but it's still happened. There are so many horses in the race that it always seems likely to happen.

It's hard to think only a month or so ago Synchronised was putting in that race at Cheltenham and now what has happened. It's always a very sad situation when this happens.<br /><br />-- Sun Apr 15, 2012 12:24 am --<br /><br />

The national hunt horses are schooled a lot of time during the season. They only run a handful of races a year for the rest of the year they are treated like the gods better than most animals. Katie Walsh said in her interview after the race that when she got it wrong ie getting too close the horse got her out of troble with its jumping. These horses are bred to jump and if you ask the people who are involved in the horse racing they love it for what it is. To be honest the National in my view has too many runners they should cut the field to 30 at most not 40. With the horse falling the risks are higher that other horses get brought down by the horse that fell because it has nowhere to go to get around it.

Banning the National will never ever happen. Every person has backed a horse in the National over the years and they will always do so. Banning 1 of the biggest highlights in the jumpping season is just madness and if that happens there will be uproar if it ever happen.

Nail on head in my opinion.

 

[hilts]

This all comes down to if you think an animals life is more important than entertainment, making money etc...

As a meat eater who had a bet on the national today i am a massive hypocrite

 

[tweetstreet]

Those saying the horses find it natural to jump then you're wrong really aren't u? It's not natural for them to jump 40 fences over 4 miles in 1 go is it? If they do jump in the wild it's by choice but very rare.

Humans have bread them to jump against their will as a matter of face really. Someone spmetioned on this thread that the horses choose to jump well in a way they do they action but they don't choose to train or turn up at aintree do they?

Will reducing the fence height really reduce the spectacle? And I mean significantly reducing them,

I bet on horses so I'm not saying ban the sport I'm Saying evaluate the event, it's the equivalent of football matches being 90 minutes each half in my opinion, and there being a heart attack every couple of months not once in a blue moon.

Evaluate, adapt and adjust. The race is either to long, jumps to higher too many runners.......

It will probably take the death of a jockey or two for real changes tho.

Incidentally has a jockey ever been killed at the national?

 

[mancitygaz]

Those saying the horses find it natural to jump then you're wrong really aren't u? It's not natural for them to jump 40 fences over 4 miles in 1 go is it? If they do jump in the wild it's by choice but very rare.

Humans have bread them to jump against their will as a matter of face really. Someone spmetioned on this thread that the horses choose to jump well in a way they do they action but they don't choose to train or turn up at aintree do they?

Will reducing the fence height really reduce the spectacle? And I mean significantly reducing them,

I bet on horses so I'm not saying ban the sport I'm Saying evaluate the event, it's the equivalent of football matches being 90 minutes each half in my opinion, and there being a heart attack every couple of months not once in a blue moon.

Evaluate, adapt and adjust. The race is either to long, jumps to higher too many runners.......

It will probably take the death of a jockey or two for real changes tho.

Incidentally has a jockey ever been killed at the national?

No, but one got stabbed at Newmarket!

According to Dick Francis anyway.

 

[Andouble]

if there was no horse racing there would be no horses.

 

[collie41]

An impression I had watching it today is there are too many horses taking part in it. I never used to think that but these days the overhead cameras we saw used today show it all from angles I never saw before. It looked to me like a lot of the horses that fell tripped over eachother or over another horse that had gone down. I know that such a big field and them being handicapped makes it a better prospect to win money, but they seemed to be all eachother today.

Thats the point of the GN, the best horse in the race when all the things are in his favour Ie ground weather jockey trainer form, can get brought down at the first fence!!!!

 

[Dzeko's Right Boot]

Horses are bred to race if there was no horse racing there would be no horses.

I'm still laughing at this.