I had the chance to see Johnny Horton play in Tampa, Atlanta, and DFW Worlds from 1991 through 1995, not too far past his prime, when I heard his videos were as equally in demand as well as every other video, combined. I also had the fortune to watch Rico play and practice between 1997 & 2002 at Worlds in Dallas.
At their peaks, I believe both Johnny and Rico shared the same intensity for every ball, whether in singles or doubles, no matter whose possession it was, and noted this constant revving intensity throughout a match. Technically, it seemed Johnny Horton, in his prime, was superior as a goalkeeper to Rico as he is today. It looked like the same intensity in profiling and remembering which D to use, immediately against any attacking forward or goalkeeper that I saw with Johnny during the mid 90's, Rico showed in the reverse, seeming to figure out how to destroy any 5bar and goalkeeper D so fast and locking on. Johnny had an awesome pull then, with a ridiculously fast 5bar & 3bar reaction time, but nowhere as machinelike as Rico's 5bar series & 3bar shooting. I have rarely ever seen another human scrap for a ball as insanely as Johnny in his prime and I've seen him trap loose balls with his 5bar or 3bar end figure on the wall, at or above the rod, so many times.
For scrapping and grinding out a game, I would put Johnny in his prime, ahead of Rico, but for incredible machinelike technique and ability to simply outscore just about anyone, almost faster than any other human, I'd have to go with Rico. And their primes were in different eras before Snake and after Snake, so of course Rico would win over a slowed Johnny nowadays, on a Tornado or any other table. That's in singles. For dubs though, especially the past three years, Rico and anyone on the planet have nothing on a Tornado over a certain "clutch" team from Texas & Minnesota. Rico may have also started to lose his peak in Tornado singles, too, since he can't even touch a certain cheesehead in a back brace and traction lately. I'd like see if Rico can dominate again with the Warrior.