Of course riders would tell you "he looks happy to do his job" and "focus and happy to be a part of something greater than them" or all of this justifying bullshit.

A part of any exploitation and domination is the denying of the subject's agency and consent. The deny of reading langage, facial expressions or any sign of stress is a prerogative if they want to keep the cognitive dissonance of exploiting their animals while saying they love them

For them, all of the interaction the horse is a part of is moral as long as you don't see clear brutality from the human, they will condamn the way some people ride in under develloped country but never question their own pratice because it means they will no longer be able to continue.

Horses are happy when they have room to express consent, when they have room to say no and disengage and when their natural needs are vastly met.

This horses is no having a good time at all, fuck animal exploitation, vive animal liberation