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I figured I might get some heat for this, but this is just one of those things about which I feel strongly.

I think it is time for many businesses which use animals for recreation or entertainment to use the common sense offered by centuries of handling a given animal. Sure, some may feel that makes me a lib, but they emote wrongly.

I would imagine that most reasonable people (and particularly we conservatives) can differentiate between hunting and fishing or using an animal for science and simply taking outrageous risks with an animal for entertainment's sake - particularly when someone with a little wisdom could have achieved the same effect without causing that risk. However, some of the posts here this morning seem to indicate (that is, aside from some good humor those who actually read what they were discussing), are purely visceral in nature and wholly out of place. After all, I am (as many of my prior posts elsewhere have no doubt shown) by any stretch no animal rights wacko. If one cannot simply accept that such behavior as deliberately having a horse run while his lead rope drags the ground is unsafe, I question if some here are being truly rational.

I really don't see what a more intense investigation should accomplish. They have remorse for what happened, and they've already changed their methods that will be used for the rest of the film. Everyone is on notice. What more would you like to see happen?

Sorry, but it happens. ALL equine activities have some unsafe components - both for the horses and the riders. You can reduce the risk but never eliminate it.

All the folks who use ground reins or stake out their horses are taking the same risk. I have seen a bucking horse get his front foot through his HALTER and throw himself down (completely unharmed). Even a horse that's been trained to ground-tie will occasionally step on his reins and hoick himself in the mouth. A broken neck is just a very, very unusual consequence.

These folks I'm sure are sorry that this horse broke his neck, and it sounds like a freak accident to me. I agree that you're "feeling strongly" about this, but I'm not sure you're thinking clearly.

Just curious, how much day to day experience do you yourself have with horses? It seems to me that you don't have a realistic view of the risks inherent in the trade.