Andrew, horses are not only dependent on regular (best: daily) exercise to maintain muscle tension and flexibility, they are also incredibly intelligent and curious personalities that are at least similarly dependent on intellectual exercise as well. If a rider can establish the actual work out of the saddle as that, an intellectual exercise, you´d be surprised by how much the horse itself wants to be ridden as the horse sees it as some kind of game it enjoys to play with you. Without physical exercise, a horse will become lame quite quickly...and without regular intellectual exercises, forms of hospitalism behaviour can quickly develop out of the horse´s boredom. You simply cannot overestimate how much horses need interaction that challenges them intellectually and they absolutely don´t mind being ridden , they even can become angry at you if you don´t work out with them. My Tinker mare gets grumpy when I don´t work out with her...and don´t get me started with what my little Lipizzaner diva does if I keep the saddle off her for more than three consecutive days. Especially my Lipica lady seems to see riding her as a "must have", she obviously feels set back when I don´t work out with her for more than two days. But it all depends strongly on what kind of relationship you develop, the more you are friendly and forgiving if she makes a mistake, the more a horse will see riding not as some form of domination, but an act of teaming up, an act of trust you put in your horse...and as a non rider, you will never be able to fully understand this special kind of connection that can only be established with a horse from the saddle.
I took my late Hannover mare out for a walk, sitting bareback on top of her. We rode through the vineyards and then, we came to a path that some bloke (one of the grape farmers, I guess) had littered a shitload of fine sand onto. When we came to that spot, she tripped a bit and all of a sudden, she was down on her front leg joints, with me sitting on her back. I started to lose my balance and was starting to topple over her lowered neck and head, then she did something I never would have expected. Instead of doing the natual movements (shifting weight to raise back onto her front hooves) , she threw back her head to SAVE ME FROM FALLING OFF. Only after she made sure that I wasn´t kissing the dirt, she tried to rise. She actively kept me sitting on her back. Andrew, that´s the kind of connection you can only get from sitting in the saddle and no kind of "Bodenarbeit" (ground work) will ever give you that same level of teaming up. When you mount, a horse puts its life into your hands...but you also put yours into his/hers. And the horses will see it that way. Riding, when done with the highest possible respect and benevolence for the horse, is irreplaceable if you really want to become a "-phile", an actual friend of the horse. No domination, just mutual trust to the fullest extend.
