We have a miniature donkey and he is awesome. A watch dog, alarm clock, predator control, and broke to harness. The horses can be a lot of work, especially if you go for the fancy breeds like arabs, walkers, standard breds.... That's why we went with The Peruvian Paso, gentle, fearless, tough, easy to train, high lung and heart capacity, hard hoofed ( no need to shoe them even in the mountains) a very high bone density, and the most important thing easy keepers (Lower feed volumes) Of course they are also the world's smoothest riding horse. But as you say horses are not for just anyone that wants a pet to look at.