Horse riding can be a lot more complex than many laypeople give it credit for: What may just look like “sitting” is actually a complicated interplay of different inputs. Rider use various aids - leg position, leg pressure, seat and weight distribution, reins and voice commands - to control a horse. Between a skilled rider and a well trained horse, these motions are fine enough that it looks like no effort at all to the unknowing outside observer.

I don’t think a video game can represent this with perfect realism, but there is definitely untapped potential: A Horse Riding Simulator could let the player control a rider’s limbs individually, giving input with right and legs and reins separately. Players without riding experience may be surprised to learn how many inputs go into basic dressage exercises, which could make for challenging gameplay.

The trick in designing such a game would be the balance between realism and fun, making basic horse riding difficult but not frustrating. A game like this could be all about the training ring, or could feature exploration and riding through the countryside.

Such a Horse Riding Simulator may also be a good fit for Virtual Reality where rein aids could be applied using motion controllers. Whether or not there is a way to implement horse riding in VR without the player getting motion sick is a question I don’t yet know the answer to, but I have found someone who is giving this sort of thing a try, and you might want to follow her on twitter.

Alternatively, the gradual input of left and right triggers on a regular gamepad might be used for reins, with the analogue joysticks for legs? A “realistic” mapping of horse riding inputs on a standard Xbox or PlayStation controller sounds like a game design challenge I’d love to play around with.