Robot Horses Are Coming — Would A Real Wyoming Cowboy Ride One?

Kawasaki Heavy Industries has unveiled a prototype for a first-of-its-kind robotic horse called Corlero.

The four-legged, AI-enhanced robot is about the size of a large motorcycle and is designed to mimic an intuitive, equine-like riding experience controlled by its rider’s weight shifting. It’s also powered by a hydrogen fuel cell engine.

Confronted with the possibility of working with robots instead of real horses, Wyoming equine professionals are startled at the prospect.

“I thought it was a joke when I first heard it,” said Jake Hutton, owner of Jackson-based JH Outfitting Co., who finds it hard to believe a man-made machine will ever navigate the territories he frequents in Teton County astride a 4-year old buckskin named Bumble Bee.

“Every step a horse takes, it gets feedback and gives you feedback,” he said. “If you're about to ride into a quicksand bog, a horse will stop and let you know we shouldn't do this before you get into the middle of it.

“I bet a robot would probably just keep on trucking into the bog. I don't think you could ever build a computer program that can [recreate] that intelligence of the horse.”

Yet if Kawasaki’s claims are accurate, its mechanical mustang with a motherboard will not only match the natural animal's maneuverability, but it may also even outperform it.

In a post on X, graphic animations depict Corleo charging down rugged mountainsides and leaping across snowy ravines in movements that suggest the design is also part bobcat.

No Replacing The Real Deal

Equine experts say they’ll need to see it to believe it. 

“I was definitely dubious when I heard,” said Amy Stockton, a Riverton-based veterinarian.

“You think of all the joints, all the tendons, all the ligaments, all those parts working together,” she said. “To get [machine] parts moving the way a horse moves and taking the majesty and the magic of a horse and turning it into something that needs oil, sounds like quite an undertaking.”

It's too early to estimate what impacts robot horses may have on industries like animal medicine or outfitting, as Corleo’s commercial release is more than 20 years out, according to the company.  

At Sweetwater Downs-Wyoming Horse Racing in Rock Springs, it’s unlikely to have impacts, said President Eugene Joyce, who finds the prospect of a cyber steed amusing. 

“I called my brother and asked, ‘What odds you think it gets at the Kentucky Derby next year?’” he told Cowboy State Daily. “And can we program this thing to buck?”

May Be Safer

Even as Joyce expressed excitement that modern science is taking high interest in equine mechanics, he worries it might widen the distance in the relationship between humans and horses, which he views as vital and symbiotic. 

“I'll quote Churchill on this: ‘There's something about the outside of the horse that's good for the inside of a man.’ There’s something with the animal that’s really connected to the human heart,” he said, citing how technology has previously served to disconnect humans and horses.

“A hundred years ago, everyone could relate to horse racing because just about everyone relied on a horse,” he added. “It was part of everyday life in America. Now everybody relates to car shows and car racing, and horse racing is kind of an anachronism.”

Whether or not Corleo deprives the human heart, it may protect the human body, according to Stockton, who paraphrased how emergency room doctors feel about equines.

“The ER doctor is going to tell you the horse is the most dangerous animal in the world,” Stockton said. “They’ll tell you how many times they see horse wreck victims and all the things that happened to them, head traumas, the broken bones, the broken necks, broken backs and everything else from horseback accidents.”

She said that could mean robotic horses are likely to reduce those ER visits. 

Just Not Cowboy

On the other hand, when you’re dealing with cowboy culture, that might not be a selling point at all, she added. 

“Although I'm not sure that a lot of horsemen want to take the danger portion out of it, I think danger is part of the magic and the romance of it” for some equestrians, she said.

As an outfitter, however, Hutton suspects that cyber horses could become a danger to regular horseback riders if encounters become common in the backcountry.

“Your horses are pretty likely to get spooked. They don't really like bicycles to start with, let alone some kind of big, tall, fake horses,” Hutton said. “I imagine that could potentially be dangerous to the people on normal horses.”

He added that in the event of wildlife encounters, he’d have more faith in Bumble Bee, a mustang he adopted from the Great Divide Basin Herd three years ago.  

“She has this biological intelligence that came out of growing up here,” he said. “She’s keyed into the environment and she’ll smell and sense that there's a bear or predator far before anyone else in our team will. Doubt a machine horse will do that.” 

Will It Ride Like A Horse?

Kimberly S. Brown, a Wyoming-based equine-health consultant who’s worked with horses for 45 years, analyzed the company’s animated depictions and concluded that as is, the design cannot accurately reproduce the cantor of a galloping horse. 

Nor does it have the advantages of the horse's purely biological fuel tank.

“If you run out of hydrogen and you're up in the top of the Wind River Mountains, it’ll be a little hard to get your robot out of there. But if you take your horse up, it’s fueled by feedstuff,” she said. “You can find a little valley, graze a bit, stop at the stream and get a drink, and you're good to go for another day.”

Even so, none of this diminishes her own excitement to take Corleo for a trot.

“I'm always interested in technology. I think it's very cool. I’ll try one out,” she said.

Stockton, too, is cautiously eager to ride a robohorse. 

“I hope that I get a chance to see a robotic horse move, try one out and see if it's anything like the real thing. But I can't imagine that it is.”

Contact Zakary Sonntag at zakary@cowboystatedaily.com

Zakary Sonntag can be reached at zakary@cowboystatedaily.com.