Meet Andre the companion pony

THIS miniature Shetland pony was bought off a Buy, Swap and Sell page for $100 and has a very important (and adorable) job.

MINATURE Shetland pony Andre doesn’t look like horses you expect to see hanging around at racing tracks but he has been to his fair share of racing days, just not as a competitor.

Andre is a companion pony, which means his job is to keep his racing horse friend company to and from the venues and throughout the day.

If you are thinking “well that sounds like the cutest thing ever”, then you would be right.

Andre in the stables at Rose Hill Racecourse where he was helping out his racehorse friend.

Andre was bought off a Buy, Swap and Sell page for $100 by Courtney Hatch and Stirling Osland, owner of Trident Racing, as a companion for their racehorse Prada.

His job is to help keep the racing horse calm while they are on the float or in the stables.

In some cases a companion pony might walk with their friend out to the starting gates, attached to them by a rope, to help keep them focused.

This is Bambi, the mate of #Ribands who runs in race 2. Ponies are great companions for racehorses + integral when travelling! @racing_nsw pic.twitter.com/nicCjZEdbS

— Hawkesbury Race Club (@hawkesburyrc) 26 October 2017

After the race the two horses meet back up and the pony might walk a few laps with the racing horse to help them settle back down, just generally being a great friend.

Courtney told news.com.au that Andre and Prada love hanging out together on race days and they miss each other when they aren’t together.

“Some days they miss each other like crazy when they’re apart. Prada would be absolutely going crazy in the stables. She’d be missing her little friend,” she said.

Doesn’t that just melt your heart?

A companion pony spotted at Hawkesbury Racecourse named Teddy has his own special little booties.

Sherman belongs to trainer Mark Newman and wears a little ‘security’ rug! How cute!

And just when you thought it couldn’t get any cuter, it turns out that companion ponies don’t even have to be ponies at all.

Horses love having company and have been known to have a variety of animals as their companions, such as dogs, goats, rabbits, chickens and cows.

Famed racing horse Seabiscuit had a bunch of companion animals that he relied on from Pumpkin the horse and Pocatell the dog to a spider monkey named Jo-Jo.