[QUOTE=dwblover;6382426]
Legolas is a back-up ride ONLY for Steffen. There is no catch-riding allowed at the Olympics, so no other rider can ride Legolas if their mount is hurt. The USEF wants to guarantee that their best rider will get to ride on the team, hence bringing a reserve horse just for him. If they bring a reserve TEAM (like Todd Flettrich and Otto) then that team may compete in place of another, but one of the team riders cannot ride Otto if their horse is hurt, etc.[/QUOTE]
That’s not entirely true. There used to be team horses, a long time ago. And if something happened to a rider, and a team horse was the better one to compete, an alternate rider might get the ride on that horse. Again, that was a long time ago for most people out here. 
I don’t remember which Olympics it was, but Fritz Theidemann ride in both SJ and dressage at one Olympics. The joke was that he was observed schooling one horse, and the dressage competitors were “not impressed” with its work and figured it wasn’t competitive…then they realized it was his show jumper.
