IRISH jockey Ruby Walsh has spoken of his concern for his children after he received death threats during the Cheltenham Festival.
Walsh was targeted online after his comments about the death of former Triumph Hurdle winner Our Conor.
"It's spineless people that tweet, I'm 35 so I can ignore it," he told the Irish Independent. "But I would worry for my kids that people could tweet them. Bullying on Twitter is a serious problem. There is no place for bullies."
The all-time leading jockey at Cheltenham, whose wife Gillian is expecting their third child this week, maintained his views that "horses are animals and animals are pets.
"I don't apologise for what I said and stand over it," he insisted. "Horses are animals and you keep them out your back door, you don't keep your family out your back door. You can replace a horse. You can't replace a human being. That's my feeling on it."
His comments angered a number of animal rights groups, but Walsh felt his view had been misunderstood.
"There's a big difference between you going home tonight and something's happened to your dog, and you go home tonight and something's happened to one of your kids. There's a huge difference,” he added.
Walsh walked off the course with a broken arm on the final day at Cheltenham after a heavy fall off Abbyssial in the first race.
He stated that he was still "in the dark" as to when he was likely to make a full recovery.
"I doubt I will be riding again this season, I hope to make a good recovery for next season but I'm still a bit in the dark at the moment," he said.
