You are kinda fast with throwing around you are delusional when I think you don't really understand what pets bring to the table and what not.Lol.. Kill the one on top.. Who can either heal themselves or also kill your mount, which has less HP because you're on a horse if you're not a tamer.
No matter which way you slice it, they always have the upperhand unless you choose to be wilfully ignorant of what they're capable of. You think MA is broken? (It isn't btw, it is only broken when you add magic) Tamers can be MA too. What then?
They are broken. You are in denial if you say otherwise.
2 issues with pets as I see them.
1st no stamina, they should have some sort of range how far they can chase
2nd ritual horses having way more HP and Stam than living one's for whatever reason
But just some scenarios where I think you are just making a buzz about non critical issues with pets. Let's take 1v1 situations as you keep hammering on them and like most fights outside dungeon are not on foot let's pretend it doesn't start on foot.
1. Mage tamer vs MA. Basically an MA can shoot 2-3 times while a tamer can heal himself or the pet once. An MA can easily keep the pressure on the pet or the mage. The mage is an easy hit as he can't move the horse while casting. Is the pet tanky you focus the mage if you lose this setup you basically just where not good. Like all MA have healing but in this setup they hardly would need it. You say MA is broken because of healing but well you mix and match what fits and currently there is just no pure archer archetype that works... I tried long ago and thought wtf meta this will work... It did not
2. MA with pets vs MA. Basically only feasible with ritualism and there is definitely the benefit of horses having higher HP than living ones. An issue with ritualism but not pets in general. The combat pet will chase you for no real gain. Whoever is on the ground without a horse first dies. If one of them uses a bear or Molva the one with the horse has the benefit to retreat more easily, use it.
3. Tamer vs footie. If caught in open field with mount fighting sure you got a problem like if an MA got ya. Still if you wear something above bone tissue a pet deals like 10 dmg on you, sure whoever is mounted can pull back heal and come back but you bandage also...also while you fight the pet it's not like you are hit from the player non stop as this is no easy task. This setup would take forever and there is plenty of time to move around, you basically also should have a bow, chances are good you will get the pet and that you just chase of the mage with a bow.
But oh well in the end I'll stop here because my guess is this is still mostly about someone complaining that he gets hit for to much in bone tissue stuff and no arguments will change that you want to ride around with cheap stuff clapping someone in steel with ease.