I’M writing over a letter in the St Helens Star on Thursday, April 19 - 'It wouldn't be the Grand National without the challenge and risks'. I agree that the Grand National is a race that any jump jockey would want to race in.

However, it really annoyed me to read the comment “Sure enough we get the usual people complaining about the unfortunate death of two horses” and then going on to say that would these 'critics' also say “we should stop people from climbing Everest (or any other mountain) because of the obvious danger”.

Well Mr Woods, I was one of the people feeling sorry for those horses as I care for animals!

As a 'critic', no I wouldn’t stop people from climbing Everest as this is their own choice and they can meet any challenge they like.

However, with the Grand National, the horses have no choice and for the horses that continue to run without a rider are full of adrenalin and aren’t aware of the potential dangers that humans are.

I’m all up for horse racing, but the jumps in the Grand National are way too high. There are too many horses in the race that end up trampling on top of each other or not able to make a clear jump due to too many horses taking the jump at the same time.

We choose our own destiny, unfortunately for horses we tend to choose theirs’ too.

Lorraine Ryle, Reginald Road