“Devoted equestrians can now trot and canter in the comfort of their own home thanks to the world’s most advanced rocking horse.

The $80,000 virtual reality riding machine called Ridemaster Pro combines a mechanical horse with a host of electronic sensors and a screen to recreate the joys of an outdoor ride without the need for mucking out..”

Its makers, Racewood Simulators, say the Ridemaster Pro enables horse lovers to use normal riding techniques to trot, canter and prompt any number of advanced manoeuvres for those who don’t have space for a horse.

It is pretty cost effective though as you don’t have any maintainance costs like food, vets, cleaning and you don’t need the space or a dressage arena .

“With one of our simulators you can ride at any time of day in a centrally heated or air-conditioned environment” said company managing director Bill Greenwood. “We also sell to Scandinavian countries where the weather is miserable and raining and to Dubai where it’s 40 degrees centigrade and too hot to ride.”

The Ridemaster Pro comes with a screen upfront which displays a number of courses and to replicate a real horse closely, users will sit on a synthetic horse model that gives real time feedback. A calorie counter can be added.

For $80,000, you will look ultra stupid just riding away to nowhere but I admit If you want to teach large groups of completely unskilled riders the basics, this would be more cost effective than a comparable number of well-trained horses.