THis pic was posted all over facebook, no telling where it actually came from.
Yeah, my first thoughts were OMG, there is so much wrong with this picture. But then I remembered how some of my "homade" and "repaired" tack looked during my first year of having my own horse. Back then I rode bareback 99% of the time cause my saddle was too heavy for me to lift. I bought the only bridle I could afford and it broke in several places and I "fixed" it with haystring. I did make sure that it was comfortable for Pasha.
I spent 6+ hours a day with my boy. Some of it riding/adventuring

but most of it just grooming, rubbing and loving on him. We played games in the pasture like tag and chase. And at the end of a long riding Saturday (after riding 10+ hours, taking tack down, hosing and rubbing my best friend down and feeding him his grain and hay, cleaning his stall and re-bedding with fresh shavings) I'd usually have an hour or two before mom and dad could pick me up (I was 10 and 11 years old). I would be exhausted, spent and so happy, and I'd curl up in a corner of his stall as he munched on his hay. Often Pasha, tired himself, would tuck his legs under and lay down sternal. I would quietly move around him and cuddle up between his legs, laying my head and shoulders against his warm side and within minutes I'd be sound asleep, feeling safer than any other place in the world. Pasha was just resting, not asleep, and never once did he move while I was sleeping with him. My father would come into the stall, speaking softly and wake me slowly then pick me up and carry me to the car. Pasha would get up then and watch me being carried away.
Guess what I'm saying is that sometimes the way things look don't tell the whole story. I kept Pasha for the rest of his life and loved him more every single day. I lost him to cancer at 29 to cancer a few years ago. And I miss him every single day. And Pasha loved me right back, despite our humble beginnings...