You guys are taking risks for the love of riding. I personally will not get on a horse again.

The bottom line is they are very large, extraordinarily strong animals. If people spent as much time on a horse, as they do in a car, we would see many more horse related injuries, ten-fold compared to cars. Watching my wife ride and going to those shows... there was someone hurt in almost every show (lots of people at these things). Most were minor breaks or concussions, but I did see two helicopters land in fields and Medivac people off to the hospital with severe head injuries. And every single guy or gal my wife took lessons from had a bad back or hip or some other ailment that did not go away and prevented them from riding as extensively as they wanted to.

Rough stuff. A half ton of animal that usually means no harm but really dont understand how powerful they are. I always used to think about these animals having some sort of behavior change like that tiger carrying off one of the Vegas duo by the head. If horses ever decided to act like a mean carnivore, or not trust people around their young and just decided to knock you over and stomp you to death... how easy would that be if they caught you in an open field... I always feel better with a tree somewhere close in a field full of cattle, especially with a bull around.
The ability to climb is good.