Foxy,
In the final analysis
It's all up to the individual and clearly you and I disagree but as I say I retain the right to be wrong :-)

Hasbeen

You must be joking. Equestrian events are amongst the most expensive around. The truly wealthy can buy horses that they cannot lose on, except to someone with even more money to spend.

Oops...on further reflection...Hasbeen really was joking.

Don't know much about horses, or riding, do you Benk?

One of the members of our last Olympic gold medal winning team was riding a failed, [slow] race horse, bought for her when she was a school girl, for a few hundred dollars, to ride at pony club. She trained that horse from a baby to a gold medal. Slow race horses are worth their value as dog meat, & no more.

She has been trying to buy another winner, without success.

My daughter was knocking on Olympic squad selection on a horse, given to us as a 9 month old colt by the people who breed him, when they sold their property due to illness. He grew up through pony club, too.

WE used to compete against some riders who tried to buy success, but none of them ever succeeded. Unlike cars, horses don't have a steering wheel, or an accelerator pedal.

I had moderate success on an old race horse, I saved from the dogs meat factory. Cost me $300. No one else could get him to go worth a damn, until a mate from up country borrowed him for his school boy son to ride in a major competition. They clicked, & the kid cleaned up. As I was a bit past it by then, I gave him to the kid, just so I could see the old bloke go so well.

All the top riders I know are poor, & make a living teaching riders, or horses, & often have to sell their best horses, overseas, to keep competiting

At least I can spell Olympic.