Horse & Hound Trending: Library image. Mentors, role models, heroes — those who inspire us help shape us and the truth is, we don’t ever grow out of needing people to look up to. Life would be dull if we did. It’s what connects us, makes us human, means we care, pushes us forwards. I’ve been thinking a lot over the last two weeks, since Rachael Blackmore’s phenomenal history-making Grand National win, and I’ve been thinking a lot in that time about the importance of role models and heroes — how much crossover there is between those terms, and what the necessary attributes and qualities are and, of course, how gender plays into it.