Horses too much for some?

I really love horses and i spotted an article in the paper yesterday which shocked me. It was quite long but here is my shortened version:

'Are horse-owning kids rich and priveliged? No. At a pony club camp last year, where i expected everything to run fairly smoothly, i found myself catching ponies that had escaped from unlocked stables and legging up riders onto ponies because they could not mount too well themselves.
For some parents, giving their child a pony is priority, not income. Their child enjoys riding for a while, but they may not no how to care for a pony. The relationship becomes master-slave, when this doesn't work out, the pony is kept in a small field and left to deteriorate or sold to another family, and the process will probably start again.'

What i'm trying to make a point of is that there are many horse owners out there who are kind and care for their horse very well, but their are some who don't. As with any other animal, some will be grown out of, forgotten about or abused, and with horses, they will be passed down the line of owners until they are too old to be ridden. You don't have to be rich to own a pony, but you really do have to know what you're doing.