That is very true Wild Man. My Hubs does all of our training and so far we have very few lawn dart moments and the majority of them have been mine and they are my fault because my seat sucks rocks. I would recommend riding your own animals that way you know them, you know how they spook, what spooks them, and the warning signals that one is going to blow. Right now we have one and funnily enough it is the youngest girl's horse, who is a spooky assed bastard. Anyone but her rides him, they'd best sit deep and hang on cause he's a demon on hooves. She rides him and it's a complete opposite, it's like riding a 30 year old glue factory horse. He does what she asks, when she asks and goes through anything for her. So far she's had him in the water, over fences, through heavy smoke, heavy rain/storm, bicycles coming up on her, 4 wheelers coming up on her, as well as dogs, cars, and cattle; he listens to her and if anyone else tried to pull it off he'd throw them.
That's the one thing that just irks the shit out of me that you see in movies and on tv. People coming up on horses in a pasture and the next thing you know, they're on them and riding hell bent for leather. The pilot episode of The Walking Dead is a fine example, he didn't know if that horse was broke, sound, crazy, or anything else; you just see him hauling ### for Atlanta. Okay, off my soap box for now.