I went to Colorado State for three years for equine science before I quit. My advisor Tim Jedra recommended an internship at Blue Mound Quarter Horses in Nevis, MN and I witnessed so much animal cruelty that I lost interest in riding horses after riding and competing in barrel racing for ten years. They were inbreeding, forcibly breeding to unwilling mares, tying ropes from colt and filly's feet to around their cinch area to force train farrier pick-up, and having multiple difficult births that resulted in dead babies and/or dead mares. I had to do some self reflection and realize that I couldn't call myself a horse lover while actively participating in their abuse and death. When I did a necropsy for lab for my equine disease class, I learned that they euthanized the horse JUST for the purpose of this lab because the horse wasn't performing under saddle well. If you love horses you have to ask yourself why you would contribute to breeding more of them into existence when there are so many unwanted horses that go to slaughter. You're adding to the problem and part of the problem. And that's not even getting in to the unnecessary human caused injury and deaths of horses in racing and every other discipline.