Now you too can ride a horse in the comforts of your living room.

Siliconera has stumbled upon a Nintendo patent in the European patent database filed back in January that depicts an inflatable seat for the Nintendo Wii console (patent link). The Wii remote rests within a specific pocket, and will sense movement using the built-in accelerometers. The connected nunchuck serves as a reign of sorts, or according to the Nintendo patent, serves as "a raised hand for balance as in Bronco riding, a lasso, a sword or other weapon, etc."

"Of course, most of us prefer not to have a full-sized model of a large animal in our living room or den," reads the patent. "Inflatable toy horses are known but typically have been used as swimming pool toys which do not provide a very realistic riding simulation... It would be desirable to provide an inexpensive, convenient way to realistically simulate, in the home, riding on a horseback or other animals."

The patent also said that the model's dimensions need to approximate the size of a real animal in order to be useful and realistic to adults and older children. Nintendo claims that the inflatable device will provide force feedback.

Nintendo's patent even offers a possible game that utilizes the inflatable saddle: "For example, the Wii main unit can display the back of a horse’s head and background of a trail, a field, a battlefield or other environment the virtual horse is being ridden through (see Figure 1A). The image may change in response to detected motion of the user."

Despite all the horse references, this kind of device would be extremely useful in future Mario Kart installments and other games that require virtual "riding."