I can't get the child to ride on top of the horse. I read the whole book and I'm still lost. The child isn't a prop - so what should I do?

i might be wrong because i haven't done much animating but have you tried parenting the child figure to the horse? i know when I did an animation with posable hair I parented the hair figure to the woman figure and it moved with her. So same basic concept.. Parented to the horse should still make the child follow the horse like it's riding it.

Select the child's hip....under the "figure" menu select "select parent", choose the horse figure number (1,2, or whatever it is) then choose the horses abdomen. From that point the child's hip (from which all else derives) will stay in the same relationship (unless you move it seperately) to the horse abdomen (roughly the middle of the horse) Scarab <-or you can offer the child an increase in his allowance if he will get on the damned horsey...

One thing that helps on multi-figure scenes - you can re-name each figure in the Hierarchy Editor under the windows menu - just single click on the "Figure 1" or "Figure 2" entry, wait a second for it to react (at least that's how it works on MY computer!) and then type the new name ("Horse", "Boy", or whatever).

I can parent her to the child but she's still not sitting on him. If I try to change her legs to make them look right they get all deformed.

Ahhhh....got to the figure menu and under "inverse kinetics" unclick the left and right legs, then you should be able use bend, twist, and side to side on the thighs, calves and feet. Inverse kinetics essentially roots the hands or feet to their present spot and trying to move the thigh has the same results as trying to pull a leg out of a concrete floor. Scarab <-been there.....