Your methods of backing and breaking.

[be positive]

Yes I meant the actual starting point wouldn't be done so quickly. Obviously the education afterwards takes time - I don't expect to see a horse working at novice level dressage the day it is sat on! My boy (before I bought him) was apparently sent away and home within 2 weeks, which I think is fairly quick (after all... It was being done as a 'favour'!) yet his ridden work is wonderful. One of the most rideable horses I've ever known, so it didn't do him any harm.

There are so many variables to take into account, some people send them away ready to sit on and ride away, others have barely been handled, the average pro yard will probably be sent more tricky horses than straightforward ones so have to allow the extra time required to make sure they do not have to rush or risk themselves getting injured, your horse may have been sent away having done plenty of sensible prep work and had a decent rider to continue when he came home, not every horse is that fortunate.

I have had them come to me from barely handled to supposedly professionally started, I take much the same approach with them all and deal with what is in front of me rather than what I have been told, one that had been started came to continue his education straight from the pro yard, he was clueless about almost everything, had been "hacked out" but only following a person on foot so had no independence or confidence in the rider and we had to go back through every stage, albeit fairly quickly, to get him understanding what he was doing, I think although he had been there about 5 weeks nothing had been done well enough for him to be established.

The gradual approach is fine for people who are doing it all themselves, they are under no pressure, they can do each step as and when the time is right allowing the youngster to build up it's confidence before riding away but it does not work for all horses, Adorable Alices Ted being an example of one that needed sending away and a totally different approach despite her being very experienced and doing everything very slowly he was not gaining confidence in himself or the people dealing with him, the change since he went away has been amazing.