Rosie-Folks like this do it for one reason. Money. If the horses the "train" (for lack of a better term) win, then the horses are worth more, and so are the services of the trainers. It has nothing to do, in this case, with the love of anything but the almighty dollar. (and perhaps to make them feel "big" somehow)
I also find the whole action of these horses disturbing, SR. On one of the other threads about this, another poster tried to tell me that the platforms do not contribute to the early breakdown of these horses. I really find that one hard to believe. There is NO WAY, at least in my mind, that a horse moving like this is not detrimental over time. Just don't believe it.
This is, no question, abuse. I think we ALL agree on that (other than perhaps, Mr Mcconnell himself). However, I would really find it a stretch to compare this to the general activity that goes on in other disciplines. There will always be outliers, or the ones who would abuse anything, but generally, I don't think it is there. I have just come from an NRHA reining show. Yes, I did see ONE guy who I thought was questionable, and that was primarily because he was HUGE and the horse was teeny, even by reining standards, and the horse was SOAKED, and the horse really looked stressed. But, I have no idea what the story was, so I did not interfere. For all I know the horse was being an a$$, just as mine was some of the time. Other than that-I saw nothing that I would think twice about. In fact, many of the horses were being treated with machines to circulate ice water on their hocks, others had magnetic therapy......all really well taken care of, IMO, and seemed content doing their jobs.