How Do The Horses Get To The Olympics

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The Economist explains

The Economist explains
How do horses travel to international competitions?

It is an expensive and paper-laden process, with first-class tickets for the most valuable mounts

PRESTIGIOUS EQUESTRIAN events and horse races are an international industry. Events like CHIO Aachen, in Germany, and the Kentucky Derby, in America, attract riders and their mounts from across the world. For the equestrian events at this year's Olympic and Paralympic games, 325 horses from 50 countries travelled to Tokyo. How do horses get to these competitions?

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Horses' owners have always taken advantage of the latest technologies. Steeds have been transported by sea since ancient times. By the 19th century some racing horses were moved around in vans, first pulled by other horses, later cars. In 1912 horses travelled across Europe by rail and road for the Olympic games in Stockholm, which was the first to include the sorts of equestrian events seen today. These days, horses travel by aeroplane. After being coaxed into air-conditioned stables, called pallets, they are loaded onto specially configured planes. In flight, grooms provide them with special water-enhanced hay to keep them hydrated. (They also pack tonnes of baggage including saddles, shoes and pitchforks.) Pilots who know they have horses on board try to take off and land more gradually to keep their equine passengers steady.

Preparing for travel can take months. The animals must have vaccinations, export licences and passports detailing their size and identifiable marks. Biosecurity is taken seriously. An outbreak of equine herpes virus in Europe this year led the sport's governing body, the International Federation for Equestrian Sports, to introduce new health measures. Much like their owners, horses now have to have their temperatures checked and take a polymerase-chain-reaction (PCR) test (for equine herpes, not covid-19). Only then can they begin their pre-travel quarantine. Most countries require some period of isolation before a flight, although its length depends on where the animals have travelled from. For the Tokyo Olympics, horses from around the world were sent to Europe for 60 days of health surveillance followed by seven days of strict quarantine. They were then flown on 19 Emirates cargo flights from Liege, in Belgium, to Tokyo, via Dubai. (Liege is home to Peden Bloodstock, the world's largest firm of horse-shipping agents, so has become a hub for equine transport.) On arrival at Haneda airport in Tokyo the animals were taken by lorry to a purpose-built equestrian Olympic village at Baji Koen, which is also a quarantine bubble, for the duration of the competition.

Horses are better at flying than humans. They can sleep comfortably while upright and they rehydrate quickly. They seem to deal well with jet lag, too. But moving them is an expensive business. A return flight for one horse and its kit from America to Europe can cost $25,000 in "business class" (two to a pallet), which owners prefer, although a cheaper "economy" (three sharing) ticket might be available. Prices have risen during the pandemic. Owners of course have no guarantee that they will recoup their costs in prize money and (later) stud fees. But sometimes they do. Black Caviar, who was mostly ridden by Luke Nolen, an Australian jockey, regularly flew first class (alone in a pallet) from Melbourne to London to race at Ascot. That cost around $50,000 per trip. But since she made over $7m in prizes over the course of her racing career, the equine air fares paid off.