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It's not about buying a made horse or a trainer doing everything except 
ride the sucker in a show.  It is about what is right for the horse.

I think that back in the "good old days", RESPONSIBLE parents treated 
animals as more disposable than they do today.  They got puppies or kittens 
"to teach the kid responsibility" without worrying about how being cared 
for (or not) by a child affected the young animal.  Today we are exhorted 
not to get kittens and puppies if there are young children in the house 
because the animals can't deal with the kids and the kids have no concept 
of how painful their grabbing and "patting" can be.  Further, we realize 
that the personality of the animal will be affected by its treatment as a 
kitten or puppy.  This last is just as true for horses.

Raising a lamb or calf in 4H does not require thinking about how the way 
you treat it will affect its personality because it is probably going to be 
slaughtered before it gets to be 2 yrs old.  A horse is different.  One 
expects a horse to be of service for most of its natural lifespan.  There 
are lots of ways to screw up the MIND of a horse and young children, or 
those who think like children, are prime candidates to do just that. 
Children can be cruel.  They tend to self-centeredness.  They often see an 
animal's disobeyance as a personal affront.  While they are easy to 
frighten, and once frightened overly timid,  they are similarly quick to 
anger and when angry strike out blindly.  In short, they are not mature 
enough to single-handedly undertake the training of an animal's psyche, 
said training to last for the animal's whole life.  Sure there are 
exceptions.  And of course when mentored they can have successes.  But 
because some kids are mature enough to take on the awesome responsibility 
of training a horse, it does not follow that most are.  Most aren't.  In 
fact, most adults aren't either.

Inexperienced trainers generally do a poor job.  Notice I said 
inexperienced, not unschooled.  There are a lot of good horsemen and 
horsewomen (as opposed to riders) who KNOW horses from watching and 
handling them for years.  Even without the benefit of formal training, 
these people can do a very nice job training a horse and shaping its mind 
to be willing, even eager, to accept more human guidance.  However, 
children don't have those many years of experience.  To expect them, 
without the guidance of an experienced horseperson, to do a good job of 
training a horse is unrealistic.  And what happens when they make mistakes? 
 Nothing to them, if they are lucky.  The horse is the one to pay the 
price.  Mom and Dad just sell the unmanageable beast and get something 
else.  The horse goes down the road having lost its most formative years 
for learning how to be a "good" horse and learned instead avoidance or worse.



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