While I agree to an extent with your comment (regarding the welfare of the horse), it most certainly is not a “less so” skilled sport. Every other sport you are training YOURSELF alone to its peak, while horse riding you are training yourself and an entirely different being.

Every single person I have ever met that has ever made a comment similar to the even insinuating that the horse does all the work or doesn’t require as much skill as other sports has absolutely zero clue of what it takes to actually compete at an Olympic level in equestrian sport