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Some horses, the kind and gentle souls that they are, will SUBMIT to just about anything. They are conditioned by nature to HIDE weakness or GET EATEN. We are predators to them unless we spend a heck of a lot of time overcoming that notion to the point that they trust us. Hopping on them at 2 years old doesn't (in my mind) feed into that trusting relationship.


I am amazed by the number of people I know who buy unbroken 2 year old, stick pre-teen beginners on them and let them go. And I mean the horse WAS unbroken...they stuck tack on it, chased it around a few times then sent the kid off on it.

I can't believe NONE of the ponies they have got have killed their kid. Oh sure the horses are completely messed up, and once finally upgraded take months of re-education and re-hab to be "normal" riding horses...but you'd think at least ONE of the equines would have stomped the idiots into the dust by now.

Just goes to show what amazingly tolerant animals horses are!