Skills which will provide pleasure throughout the child's life. Keeping a horse can be expensive. If you pay someone to take care of the horse this is not such a problem. A horse that is cared for by the family must be provided for during holidays, vacations, and family crisis. Your child may lose interest or find another pastime.
Horses are time consuming.
Make sure that your child's other activities will fit in with a horse. Do you or someone in your family have the experience to care for a horse. If the whole family is involved in your hobby, a horse can bring the family together. If however, everyone has separate interests, your horse will have to fit around their schedules, and might take time away from other family activities. If other members of the family are interested, it is a lot of fun to spend time together doing chores around the barn as a family.