The Grand National

[badgerx16]

What do those twats calling themselves 'protesters' expect to acheive ? If they want to get in the way of the race let them - cable tie their wrists and make them stand in the first ditch as the race goes towards them. Either that or make them walk through the main stand crowd.

[Lighthouse]

Tw*ts, no doubt but I do think they have a point. The number of horses killed in the name of entertainment is unacceptable and the ‘tators just keep wheezing on about how nice their stables are.

[badgerx16]

1 hour ago, Lighthouse said:

Tw*ts, no doubt but I do think they have a point. The number of horses killed in the name of entertainment is unacceptable and the ‘tators just keep wheezing on about how nice their stables are.

Any fatality is a tragedy, but where do you stop ? Horses don't just die in National Hunt races, it happens at 3-day events, point-to-point races, during hunt rides, at show jumping events, even during flat races. Is the end game to stop people riding at all ?

Edited 15 April, 2023 by badgerx16

[Barsiem]

1 hour ago, badgerx16 said:

Any fatality is a tragedy, but where do you stop ? Horses don't just die in National Hunt races, it happens at 3-day events, point-to-point races, during hunt rides, at show jumping events, even during flat races. Is the end game to stop people riding at all ?

Nothing wrong with people riding recreationally, but if there was a sport that had a similar fatality rate for humans there's no way it would be tolerated.  And at least humans would have the capacity to understand the inherent dangers associated with their participation and be able to make a decision as to whether they wanted to take part.  The horses have no choice and are basically whipped to go faster and put themselves in even greater risk.

[Weston Super Saint]

34 minutes ago, Barsiem said:

Nothing wrong with people riding recreationally, but if there was a sport that had a similar fatality rate for humans there's no way it would be tolerated.  And at least humans would have the capacity to understand the inherent dangers associated with their participation and be able to make a decision as to whether they wanted to take part.  The horses have no choice and are basically whipped to go faster and put themselves in even greater risk.

Fair points.  Why don't the horses that lose their riders just stop and start eating the grass?

[Lighthouse]

39 minutes ago, Barsiem said:

Nothing wrong with people riding recreationally, but if there was a sport that had a similar fatality rate for humans there's no way it would be tolerated.  And at least humans would have the capacity to understand the inherent dangers associated with their participation and be able to make a decision as to whether they wanted to take part.  The horses have no choice and are basically whipped to go faster and put themselves in even greater risk.

Agreed. Some of the nonsense trying to justify these horse deaths involves an extraordinary amount of denial. One of the ITV pundits was talking about how people die in football and F1… we’ve had one F1 fatality in 29 years and when it happened the safety car rules were immediately reassessed to prevent it from happening again.

Ride recreationally, ride dressage, heck I’d even be okay with racing flats if whipping was banned, but these steeplechases are just awful. Everyone taking selfies and drinking champagne whilst another poor animal gets a bolt through its brain.