July 30, 2026 
After weeks of recapping Faultless, I had the opportunity to sit down with Ben Asselin and Kyle Koss, the sibling–producer duo behind the equestrian docuseries. Grandsons of Ron Southern, founder of Spruce Meadows, they’ve both had a lifetime to fall in love with the sport.
It is that love that they wanted to share with the world.
That, and non-alcoholic martinis (wtf?).
Here’s an edited and highly condensed version of our interview. (We could have talked all day, obsessives that we are!). Read on to find out the “why” behind the series and if (I hope, I hope!) there will be a season two:
ERICA: So my first question will be why? It’s a general question, but are you like me, obsessed and wanting more people to enjoy the sport? Or are you really wanting to focus on Spruce? What was your overall why?
KYLE: We really wanted it to be, you know, a bit of a love letter to the sport and to really engage an audience in a way that we saw other sports documentaries do, like Drive to Survive for Formula 1. There was a formula there that we saw that was successful for other sports and we wanted to do that for show jumping.
The other part of it for me was our grandparents. They did a lot for the sport and they were always involved in media. Specifically, my grandfather was really involved in Spruce Meadows television and really wanted to raise awareness of the sport.
It’s also tied to the love of the animal. And so that was another piece we took very seriously.
ERICA: And how have you felt? How did you find balancing being interesting to equestrians and being interesting to non-equestrians?
BEN: I was nervous when this thing came out because we put our heart and soul into it and I love the sport, I love the horses. It was stressful because these people dedicate their lives and that was something we didn’t take lightly. We wanted to promote the sport the best way possible, but you also need some sort of drama.
KYLE: I didn’t come from the sport. I am a business person. It’s sort of difficult when you’ve been around the sport for so long, as you know. It’s not the easiest sport to watch. In some cases, you are like, “This is kind of boring.” So that’s why we made the television show because I wanted to show the backstory more than anything else. And then drama creates itself. It wasn’t about creating drama.
ERICA: Except episode 5 with Darragh!
BEN: He created that drama for himself. I think that was incredible. I was there. I was in Dublin that whole week with the crew. And it’s not like we were like, “Darragh, we need you to act like the villain in the sport.” Every interview that we did in Dublin, he was just speaking from the heart. I have the biggest respect for him in that sense because he made great television. At the end of the day, he was himself and wasn’t afraid to show that to the world. That is the competitor that he is, and he’s ruthless. He wants to win and he believes in himself, his horses, and his owners. He’s not afraid to say it. I was texting Kyle and I was like, “Holy sh-t, man! This is going to be the best episode ever!”
ERICA: Have you guys had a reaction to that? For me, that episode—being in the sport, I’ve had a lot of people text me and be like, “He was a complete ass.” But for me, that episode really illustrated the frustration you feel so much of the time. I felt like finally somebody’s not being nice, finally somebody’s just expressing how f***ing p*ssed off they are. You know what I am saying?
KYLE: It was real. It wasn’t manufactured drama, I can tell you.
BEN: For the most part, the reactions to the show have been positive. But we knew from the start, creating this show was not an easy thing to do. And it was our first time doing it. We’re proud of the fact that I think we captured the sport in the right way. And we really wanted to focus on different types of people. To go to the top ten in the world, but also have a guy like Kyle King that came from nothing and drives his own horses to the show. And then you have a Steve Guerdat that’s just legendary and such a good custodian of the sport.
And you have a guy like Darragh Kenny that’s just a fierce competitor. All the back stories are different from one another. I think that’s what interests people in the sport. They might not come and watch 60 horses jump in a Grand Prix, but they might get a little bit interested in the human being.
KYLE: Ultimately, from the equestrian world, most of the people think it’s a good television show. And from the non-equestrian world, I’ve had people come to me and say, “It’s a good TV show,” but there’s people that have said “I don’t get it.” I think that that’s pretty normal. Not everybody is going to get everything you do. It’s kind of like art, right? You are in a way doing a bit of art.
ERICA: Not everybody is a horse person, but our obsession is so total and complete. I feel like we have this great desire to give it to other people. At least that’s how I feel.
KYLE: It’s like a—I shouldn’t say it’s like a poison. It’s like once you get that itch, you can’t change it, right?
I know that we came at this from a very original perspective, because we’ve been in the sport our whole lives. Even me, I am not an equestrian like Ben is. I didn’t participate in the sport, but I’ve been around it forever. We’ve been around the horses forever. I will tell you the story about how we actually got the producers.
I had invented a fake martini, a nonalcoholic martini.
ERICA (flummoxed): What? Why does anybody want to invent a nonalcoholic martini? That’s like decaf coffee.
BEN: The craziest thing is that Kyle loves a martini.
ERICA (still flummoxed): Why did you develop a nonalcoholic martini?
KYLE: Well, I did. It’s actually called Dry & Dirty. It’s the world’s first nonalcoholic martini.
ERICA (attempting a joke): Is it a dry martini?
KYLE: So we have a dirty martini, we have a lemon drop martini, and we have an espresso martini. It’s a real drink.
ERICA (still not getting it): I can order this?
KYLE: Yes! You can order it online. Go to dryanddirty.com.
So, anyway, I had invented that martini…
[INTERMISSION, in which Kyle tells the story of Ben being injured and needing a project while Kyle taps his nonalcoholic (still don’t get it) martini collaborator for TV producer contacts and Faultless is born…]
KYLE: …and then you know we went from there.
ERICA: What about a season two? Are you going to film in case Richie gets the Grand Slam?
BEN: We have plans in the works right now. I think there is a huge storyline right in front of us with Richie chasing the Grand Slam. We really don’t want to miss that opportunity. Our goal with season one is to try to get as much exposure as we can. We are hoping to announce some more distributions for the European markets and Latin American and Asian ones as well.
ERICA: Okay. So, if I just keep literally playing it in the background of my bedroom, like every single day, I’ll boost your numbers to ensure a season two?
BEN: What’s been really good is our conversion rate. So on a lot of TV shows, they watch the first episode, but did they go and watch another episode? We have an 86 percent conversion rate.
ERICA: I fantasize about being always able to turn on my television and see my sport.
BEN: The more that the sport can grow into these streams, it’s good for everybody. We really found we wanted to focus on the Rolex Series because first, Spruce is a Rolex facility and, at the end of the day, there is a huge, tremendous amount of respect for the venues that Rolex supports. And these venues have significant heritage. Dublin celebrated its 150th year last year. Aachen is the Mecca.
I also think that all these other leagues are great for the sport. It attracts new audiences, it attracts new corporate sponsors, it attracts owners, riders, everything. But at the end of the day, I think that the Rolex Grand Slam is always going to be the epitome—there’s only one person to do it. And it’s the same thing in the golf Grand Slam. There’s only six people in the span of 150 years that have actually done it.
ERICA: And maybe I’ll be out there for the Masters—I have to see if Richie does it! So maybe I’ll see you guys there.
BEN: And then we’ll have a real martini.
ERICA: Yeah, because I’m not having a fake-*ss martini, dude. I’m having a real martini!
KYLE: Try them both, you can try them both!
ERICA: You give me the fake martini, I’m gonna spike it!
If you haven’t caught Faultless yet, check out therokuchannel.com and type Faultless in the search bar.
