@Smokin Joe
Horses perform competently in all sorts of situations, including riots when ridden by cops.
But if it truly was the case that Sassy was too skittish for the circumstances, one of two things are true: Moore was too stupid and inexperienced to know it, or he knew and didn't care because his stunt took precedence.
Because all those horses are used to having people shoving cameras at them, literally from every direction? (look at the video--the horse was surrounded, especially if you consider the angle the vid was shot from. Two running up the outside to get a different angle didn't help.
Even Meidiots know enough to stay back a reasonable distance from mounted patrolmen, and no one gets up close in the show arena because they'd be in the way. His only mistake is in assuming people there would show a little horse sense, but the camera angle is more important.
So maybe someone needs to rein in some press people for a change. But they would have had even better footage if the horse had kicked one of those idiots.