Companion horses question

[rachel_s]

Went to the Paralympics today and several riders had companion horses in the arena.

Never seen this before ( admittedly not been to paradressage before) so have a couple of questions:

Are they just other horses in the stables or do riders travel both ridden & companion? And do people on their own borrow horses from other countries?

What happens if the companion horse spooks? (one looked a tad grumpy today whie others seemed to relax)

However, thought it was brilliant and loved the US rider's horse ( it was the PM session where Lee won bronze.

 

[philamena]

I think it's usually a team mate's horse. For example there were two horses competing yesterday from Singapore and the one later came in as companion for the other...

 

[Jo_x]

Yes I think they are a team mates horse - having watched two days of dressage marvelling at how smart the companions all looked (and wondering why there were no hairies or shetlands!) I recognised Gentleman being the companion for Sophie C's test and it clicked that they are team horses

 

[kiritiger]

Yes, it seems to be other team members horses, I liked the US team's companion horse too. He was Jonathan Wentz's ride, Richter Scale

 

[rachel_s]

Yes, it seems to be other team members horses, I liked the US team's companion horse too. He was Jonathan Wentz's ride, Richter Scale

He was the horse I saw in the freestyle - I loved him.

 

[blueheron]

They're not always a team mate's horse

I was at the park yesterday and on the in-ear commentary, the bloke was explaining that some countries will lend/borrow a companion/friendly horse from other nations. I think he said South Africa was one nation that had borrowed or lent a horse from/to another nation.

Real sense of camraderie

 

[armchair_rider]

Yep. The commentator specifically said the horses wasn't nesecarily from the same nation and mentioned SA sending theirs in as a companion toanother country's horse.