Grand Bounce National

Manufacturer/supplier: Airquee.

The Grand Bounce National, sometimes listed as an inflatable Grand National, derby hoppers or a space hopper horse race, is a horse race you run yourself on inflatable ride-on horses. Up to four people line up at the start, climb onto a horse each, and race down their own lane to the finish. It's the sort of kit people ask us for around the Grand National and the Derby, though it goes down just as well at any fun day where people fancy a race.

Each horse is white with orange ears, a yellow mane and a number on its back, and has two handles at the head to hold onto. You straddle it, grip the handles, and half-run half-bounce down the track. The lanes are numbered one to four under a printed "Race Track Entrance" arch, with padded green walls down each side to keep racers in their own lane. There are no hurdles on ours, so it's a straight dash to the line, which means it works for all ages from children up to the adults who reckon they're quicker.

It sets up indoors in a sports hall or outdoors on grass or alongside a marquee. We've run it at school fun days, village fêtes, summer festivals, birthday parties, racing-themed events, and corporate fun days and team-building days, where a four-lane race tends to draw a crowd cheering their colleague on. One of our staff sets it up, runs the races and supervises throughout, so you're not left organising heats yourself.

The kit

• Equipment dimensions: 50ft long x 26ft wide x 10ft high
• Four lanes, up to four racers at a time, with four ride-on horses included
• Suitable for children and adults
• Indoor or outdoor use
• Power: 2 x standard 13amp plugs (ordinary domestic sockets)
• Set up and run by one of our trained operators

How we hire it out

We own all our kit, so the person who turns up to run it is one of our own staff, not a sub-contractor we've passed the job to. Everyone on the road has passed the RPII operator and supervisor exams, is first-aid trained and enhanced-DBS registered, which matters if you're booking around children or a school. The inflatable is PIPA-tagged and inspected every year by our in-house RPII inspector, and outdoors we set up the anemometer and run the standard 24mph wind-speed cutoff, the same as we do with any inflatable. We've run Monster Event Hire from our unit in Havant since 2002, covering Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex and into London, and we carry £10 million public liability with the certificate on request.

If you want more than one race on the go, have a look at the Gold Cup horse racing game for an indoor version, the rest of our large inflatables, or our corporate and team-building range.