i cant believe it royal clan was winning and that stupid loose horse ran in front of him at the hurdle and royal clan went down, cant they try and get the horses of the track, my husband was so annoyed and my dad !!!!

Well  of course someone could run on to the track & try to stop half a ton or so of horse but they just might get killed in the process & could even cause a bigger accident

How would you suggest they did it ? loose horses are a fact of life in National Hunt races

Hi that is part and parcel of the grand national

The horses that run loose always seem to have such a good time. I think that they would stop pretty quick if they didn't enjoy racing so much!

Loose horses are a fact of life with hurdles and steeplechases. There are 'runouts' at intervals along the courses to encourage them off the course, but the fact that the horses choose to continue running and jumping proves that they're doing it because they want to. Otherwise they'd stop.
:)

It wasn't a stupid horse - rather the opposite, it decided not to jump that very big fence :D

I did'nt see it... i usually spend it looking the other way in case they fall.
How many died this year?
So sad when that happens

Donna and charliex

None :)

My money was also on clan royal - he didn't actually go down though, only McCoy hit the dust ;)  All part and parcel of the national!

Also Mc Coys saddle appeared to be slipping backwards, so even if he hadn't come off when the loose horse ran out, he'd probably have come to grief sooner or later anyway :(

So Mc coys stable hand is for the high jump.?????? ;/ Cause a specially ftted wouldnt slip surely???????? ESPECIALLY not for the Grand national, or is there some reason behind why a sadle that should have been properly fitted wuld slip during the race????????

No, saddles slip quite often. Often when the horse is puffing out his ribs (yes, they can do it deliberately!) when his girth is being tightened.
:)

Racing saddles don't come to fit the horse, they come to fit the jockey, a jockey will often have several saddles of differing weights.  Normally a horse prone to 'puffing out' or being an odd shape (herring gutted) will have a breast girth in addition to a normal girth and sircingle to prevent the saddle slipping.  It looked to me as if Royal Clans style of jumping was sliding the saddle and girth backwards........

I believe the surcingle broke...

Thank god for that chole :)

Thanks for answering

Donna and charliex