Riders have to control their horses with shifts of body weight, leg positioning, and touches of rein, if one part of the body moves incorrectly they are telling the horse to do something entirely incorrect and could end up on the ground. Try doing that going 30 MPH around barrels, scary but exciting.
It is more than a sport. It is a life. Your team mate is something that is 10times bigger than you and can kill you as easily as you breathe, there is no perfect, there is no redo, there is no bench. We are the secret athletes that put our lives in the hoofs of a