[Sandy]

  Why the sudden change from horses to dogs?
THink someone has lost the thread

[doganjo]

Loosey said this

It's just one of the things that make me mad ... along with irresponsible dog breeding etc etc

I agreed with her.

[lachlanandmarcus]

I think that the National should be run in minimum good to soft ground or softer and (controversial!) the fences should be put back up to their original heights before they were lowered! All the other safety measures should remain eg covering the brook at Bechers to avoid horses getting stuck, having the orange strips across to heighten visibility of fences.
The thing that kills horses in races like the National is speed. Fall slowly on soft ground and very few horses suffer permanent damage. Fall while hitting a fence at high speed on fastish ground and it's curtains. The fences were lowered but that has increased the speed and lessened the respect with which the horses hold them, it has also encouraged the more standard chasers to be entered, who if they stand up are much faster so have a big chance at the prize, but who all too often are not suited to the GNs obstacles. I would also reduce entries to 35, just to lessen the chances of being brought down.
As a horse owner and horse lover, I hate to see any horse being injured or worse; and I dont believe a horse who has shown themselves not to enjoy Aintree or who hasnt shown themselves to be likely to stay the trip should be tried again in the GN, they either like it or they dont, but I do believe that it is the ultimate test of a jockey and horse.  Horses injure themselves fatally every day in their paddocks and out hacking, and there is no such thing as risk free horse riding.
For the same reason I would be in favour of the re-intro of steeplechase and roads and tracks sections in 3 day events; the horses then take the XC much more steadily and safely instead of haring round and ending up having rotational falls which kill horse and quite often rider. Sometimes safety measures can be anything but!

[SallyintNorth]

You make some interesting points lachlanandmarcus.  It just goes to show that these things are never quite so straightforward as they seem.

[Rosemary]

Why did they take the roads and steeplechase bits out of the XC?

[belgianblue]

people should stop and pause a minute, forget the grand national, people have been breeding horses in that boom years, because there were nation of horse loving people out there,spent thousands on their horses like prize possessions.  Now recessesion kicks in money gets tighter, now where does the prize loving horse goes,  to the nearest rescue centre, lets dump it on there doorstep, now what the rescue centre doesn't tell you, when there yard is full, the knacker man comes in and takes horses that they can't shift.

[lachlanandmarcus]

Why did they take the roads and steeplechase bits out of the XC?

Partly to make it less strenuous to increase the numbers competing. But mostly because eventing is an expensive sport to run at Olympic level, and is under threat of being dropped; in order to stay in this deal was done, and also other smaller Olympic nations dont necessarily have the facilities to run the original spec for a top level 3DE; you need a lot of land/facilities so its not deemed to be a fair competition for the Olympics if realistically certain nations will be the only ones able to practice properly.

As a result of doing it the horses speed round the XC so much that they have had to introduce more in the way of 'tricky' fences; narrow corners, tricky related distances (which I dislike from the horses perspective) and less of the good old fashioned massive but strightforward 'rider frighteners' (generally the horses jumped those very well, but they looked great from a spectator perspective!). The dressage phase has also become a lot more influential as the lack of steeplechase/roads and tracks has meant continental Warmbloods who are better at dressage can do well, whereas previously Thoroughbreds were the norm as they have more stamina. For me this again hasnt improved the 3DE for the better as for a good competition the XC should be the most influential phase (otherwise it might as well be a dressage comp or a showjumping test).