Granted, I fell off one when I was 14 on a busy main street and never got back in the saddle again, but to me they are beautiful, elegant, sentient beings.
In Australia, we all place bets and get frocked up for the Melbourne Cup - a fairly straightforward, run of the mill horse race that involves a handful of ponies galloping around a racecourse.
Yes, some horses are injured in this race and are subsequently put down, but this is a rare occurence.
I assumed that the Grand National race would be in the same vein as the Melbourne Cup, so I was gob-smacked, disgusted and frankly a little disturbed when I watched the Grand National for the first time three years ago.
This race is akin to The Hunger Games in that a great deal of participants die whilst vying for the same coveted prize, (though I'm sure the horses themselves couldn't care less if they win or lose).
Making horses jump over ridiculous fences at a stupidly quick rate and gallop through slippery mud just doesn't seem kosher to me. In fact it seems downright cruel.
On average, horses die every single year at the Grand National.
They're either injured, deemed lame, then destroyed or they trip over and break their necks.
Nice!
As lovely as it is to get dressed to the nines, drink some bubbly and wear a strange hat, I think we need to look at the bigger picture here and that is this: the Grand National is little more than a violation of animal welfare and complete disregard for the wellbeing of a beautiful animal.
I asked on Twitter earlier how others felt about the race and one girl in particular -Rachel from @madeupof summed it up pretty perfectly 'Mass murder for public entertainment and profit? Doesn't do much for me personally'.
So, let's head on down to Aintree Racecourse and place bets on how many horses will die this year?
Rant. Over.
Thanks for reading!
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