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Unless I missed something, the "completely reasonable reason" appears to be that horses live a lot longer than dogs.

They're apparently calmer, require less social contact, and cause fewer allergy problems, in addition to the lifespan benefit, which is considerable. And, as the article mentions, if you need mobility/stability assistance, a horse can be more helpful than a dog.

Really, once you learn that there people who could reasonably prefer mini-horses to dogs, the article has answered the question it sets out to.

> cause fewer allergy problems

I have a very hard time believing that. Do you have a source? It's all anecdotal, but the few people I know with dog allergies, seem to be very mild cases. While horse allergies seem to be fairly common and much more severe.

Allergies require exposure to the allergen, and since far more people have significant dog exposure than have significant horse exposure, dog allergies are much more common. That's why there is very little online about horse allergies; there is also very little online about panda bear allergies.

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