Robot Horse Riding: Wooden Mounts to ABB Arms

Long before anyone talked about a robot horse, soldiers practised mounting on wooden frames, children rode coin-operated ponies outside shops, and jockeys trained on motorised simulators. The latest version walks on four legs and carries a rider. That is the idea behind Kawasaki's CORLEO and behind a Chinese machine that visitors rode in Beijing this summer. This post follows the line from wooden mounts to riding simulators and therapy machines, then looks at today's legged prototypes, at where ABB robots could fit, and at what still keeps a rideable robot on the show floor.

Sandy, a coin operated horse ride, at the White River Valley Museum in Auburn, Washington. Photo: Joe Mabel / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

How wooden and mechanical horses taught people to ride

The first riding machines had no motor at all. Histories of gymnastics trace the pommel horse back to wooden horses that soldiers used to practise getting on and off a mount, a habit dated as far back as Alexander the Great and kept up through Roman times and the Middle Ages. A horse that moved came much later. In 1930 James Otto Hahs of Sikeston, Missouri, built what he called the Hahs Gaited Mechanical Horse. He made it from wood at first and then from aluminium, and from 1933 Exhibit Supply Company distributed it. That machine is counted as the first kiddie ride.

An electric ride on horse with a 50 cent coin box at the Fahrzeugmuseum Marxzell in Germany. Photo: Alf van Beem / Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Real horses were being used for therapy at the same time. The thinking behind what is now called hippotherapy is that a walking horse moves the rider's pelvis in a pattern close to human walking, so sitting on one trains balance and trunk control. The best known early example is the Danish rider Lis Hartel, who won a silver medal in dressage at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics after polio had left her partly paralysed. Her result drew attention to riding as rehabilitation. A live horse still needs land, staff and good weather, though, and many patients cannot get near one.

Lis Hartel riding Jubilee at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. Photo: IOC via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Simulators were built for those patients and for riders who wanted more saddle time. The Equicizer, developed in the United States, is a non-motorised horse body on a frame that the rider rocks by hand. In Britain, Bill Greenwood built his first racehorse simulator around 1990 after an injured jockey asked for a way to stay fit, and his family firm Racewood later made motorised models for other disciplines and for therapy. In Japan, rehabilitation doctor Tetsuhiko Kimura worked with Matsushita Electric on Joba, a saddle on a base that pitches and rolls. In a 2014 study of 26 children with cerebral palsy, simulator sessions and real horse therapy improved balance by similar amounts.

The Equicizer, a non motorised horse riding simulator used for exercise, training and therapy. Photo: Frankie Lovato / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Robot horse prototypes you can sit on

Kawasaki Heavy Industries showed CORLEO in April 2025 at a preview for the Osaka Kansai Expo. It is a four-legged ride-on machine with a 150cc hydrogen engine that makes electricity for the leg actuators, split rubber hooves and a seat that moves independently of the body. The rider steers mostly by shifting weight and holds a handlebar. Kawasaki has since set up a SAFE ADVENTURE business team that reports to its president. The company wants prototypes ready for test rides at Expo 2030 in Riyadh and has mentioned a possible market launch around 2035.

A Unitree Go2 quadruped robot of Salvamont, Romania's mountain rescue service, walking in snow. Photo: HotNews Romania, Adi Iacob and Ovidiu Popica / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 3.0)

Patent drawings found in August 2026 showed more, including clothing with motion sensors so CORLEO can read the rider, and seating for two. On October 7, RideApart reported that Kawasaki also wants a robot human to go with its robot horse. Nikkei had written days earlier that the company plans to make its Kaleido humanoid work autonomously by around 2030, starting with patrols and carrying parts in factories. In China, a rideable machine is already in public. At the 2026 World Robot Conference in Beijing, startup DaxAI let visitors ride its Qiji X1 on the show floor, though reporters described its gait as jerky.

Visitors ride a KUKA Robocoaster arm at the Farnborough Air Show, 2008. Photo: Andrew Skudder / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

ABB does not make a robot horse and has announced no project in one, so its role here is a possibility. Large arms such as the IRB 6700 repeat heavy, precise motions all day, which would suit durability testing of saddles, legs and seat units. Robot arms have carried riders before: KUKA's Robocoaster has given rides at shows and theme parks, as we covered in our post on robot theme park rides. A GoFa CRB 15000 cobot could help assemble and test leg actuators next to technicians, and engineers would plan such a cell first in RobotStudio.

An ABB GoFa CRB 15000 connecting test equipment on a production line. Photo: ABB

Where robot horse riding goes from here

In homes and clinics, the first robot horses will probably look more like better simulators than walking machines. A saddle on a powered base takes little space and repeats a gait exactly, which suits therapists who want the same session every week. Riders recovering from injury could work on balance indoors in winter. Coin rides and fitness gadgets have shown for decades that people will happily sit on a fake horse. What they will pay for a powered one at home is still unknown, and the price will decide how far these machines spread beyond clinics and riding schools.

Soldiers ride in a therapeutic horse programme led by certified therapists. Photo: Dave Campbell / U.S. Army via Wikimedia Commons (public domain)

Legged machines like CORLEO face harder problems. A robot that carries a person over rough ground must not fall, and if it does, it must not land on the rider. Hydrogen storage, battery life and repair all matter once a machine leaves a closed test track. The factories that build these robots will need the tools used for cars and motorbikes, such as welding cells, assembly lines and test rigs. That is where industrial arms such as ABB's IRB series, with safety functions like SafeMove, would most likely earn a place.

Two engineers program an ABB IRB 7710 or IRB 7720 large robot with a FlexPendant. Photo: ABB

People with the right skills may be the scarcest part. A horse simulator is simple to maintain, while a walking robot combines actuators, sensors, software and a fuel system that few technicians know as a whole. Riders will need training too, because a machine that reads body movement responds differently from an animal with a mind of its own. Kawasaki's timeline, with a market launch not before the mid 2030s, suggests the company expects years of testing first. Until then, most people who want to ride a machine will do it on a simulator fixed to the floor.

ABB's GoFa cobot is guided by hand and stops when it senses contact. Photo: ABB

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