They are learning to not fear horses, it's been a cultural thing for every race/facation/nation etc. A horse that knows your afraid of it, will really mess you up. Picture 200 years ago, we tamed them we traveled with them, bonded with them. They were our cars, our war machines, our reason for early expansion.

We live in a technology age, we moved away from them but they are very much why we are at this age, alot of people of this planet still use them .

The events that are hosted might seem cruel just from the show, but those horses are loved by their owner for the most part, it's similar as thinking ufc is cruel, one day we might have to resort to using them as our tools again, and some groups still do.

We have to remember that they helped us get this far, without them we would still be in the dark ages