I wasn’t quite honest last week as I praised Arkle, arguably the greatest steeplechaser of all time…or to be more exact I was being disloyal. Disloyal to my childhood hero Mill House, who was the magnificent winner of the 1963 Cheltenham Gold Cup, and destined to be the King of steeplechasing for many years. So in 1964, when Mill House was hot favourite to win his second Gold Cup I could only watch in shock as Arkle swept into the lead to record the first of his three triumphs in this…

Grand National fever again last Monday. This time the €250,000 Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse in Co Meath, not far from the famous Dreaper stable which once housed the greatest steeplechaser of all time, Arkle. It was won by the English trained, but Irish bred, Niche Market, brilliantly ridden by 19 year old Harry Skelton. There is a showjumping connection here as Harry is the son of British veteran Nick Skelton, who in recent years came back from serious injury and retirement to be one…

Every April in the UK the world stops for The Grand National Steeplechase at Aintree. It is the richest race of the year with the incredible prize money of £900.000. The winner immediately becomes front page news on every national newspaper and will still feature in quiz questions round the country twenty years afterwards!



I was brought up with the history of the Grand National and those famous Aintree fences, Beechers Brook, The Chair and The Canal Turn…..1954 The Queen’s horse…

There is no doubt about it...we need to put our top equestrian brains together and come up with a new design for the horse's head with six main aims:



THE DESIGN BRIEF



1 We need to desensitise the area around the poll.

2 Make the top jaw narrower or the bottom jaw wider so they are both the same width.

3 Move the exit point for the motor and sensory nerves that is just under the cavesson noseband.

4 Fuse and strengthen the delicate ends of the bones at the…