Susan Finnerty

SO who’s taking the horses to Rio?

Peden Bloodstock. Or Emirates B777F transport planes to be exact.

The same Boeing Sky Cargo aircraft have been already been used by Peden Bloodstock to ship horses to various Global Champions Tour venues and the transport of some of the world’s most expensive sport horses begins in stages in two weeks’ time. The Belgian airport of Liege is the main transport hub in Europe for shipping horses to the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics.

Most of the dressage, eventing and show jumping horses will start the 11-hour-plus flight from here, including MHS Going Global and Judy Reynolds’s Vancouver K. Stansted, familiar to many Irish passengers, is another departure point for one planeload of event horses on July 29th, while North American-based horses will travel to Brazil from either JFK or Miami.

Staggered shipments of event, dressage and show jumping horses are arranged to arrive in Rio de Janeiro four to five days before their competition starts. Several rest days are allocated too for the horses before the return flight. On board the last Sky Cargo return flight to Liege will be the second batch of show jumping horses with this flight is scheduled for Monday, August 22nd, the day after the Rio Olympics closing ceremony.

At least one FEI veterinary surgeon is on board each plane and Hugh Suffern, the Irish event team veterinary surgeon, will double up by supervising the Irish horses on the Stansted-Rio flight. Two of Peden’s experienced ‘flying grooms’ and up to nine attendant grooms, from various teams, will also travel with the horses. The strict requirements for each travelling attendant (round fare ticket - €1,200) include a good command of English and a criminal background check.

Horses will travel in ‘Air Stables’ with two stalls per pallet and each horse is also issued with an overnight bag, kept near its stall, for the horse’s bridle and rug. Horses must wear either a bridle or Chifney during loading and have their own water supply and full haynet ready for the flight. Flights through the equatorial region are sometimes subject to tropical storm systems, however transport flights fly at a higher altitude to avoid turbulence and keep the flight as smooth as possible for the horses.

The mandatory FEI veterinary check will have already been carried out before departure and as an FEI veterinary surgeon is on board each flight to ensure biosecurity measures, minimal delays for the horses are expected once they land at Rio de Janeiro’s international airport. From there, they will travel in European-style transporters to Deodoro Olympic Equestrian Centre, which is about 45 minutes away.

The plan is that once the horses land, they are then held in a ‘biosecurity bubble’ at the Deodoro site, where disinfectant baths and hand sanitiser points will be located around the stable block.

“The whole biosecurity issue is the most important concern for us. That’s the concern that I would have, are the biosecurity measures strong enough? The local, endemic horse can have no way of mixing with the competition horses,” said Pat Meagher who will travel over as the veterinary surgeon for the Irish show jumping hope, MHS Going Global. “To be fair, we have been told that they have locked down the site for the past six to eight months.”

The mosquito-borne Zika virus, one of the main concerns in the run up to these Olympics, does not affect horses, so what are the veterinary tests required for Rio-bound horses?

“The pre-importation blood tests for horses are pretty standard; Dourine, Glanders, Equine Piroplasmosis – they’re all done 14 days in advance,” explained Meagher, who flies out to Rio on August 10th.

“There’s a crossover with Hugh [Suffern], he comes back on the 10th of August and I travel over that same day.”

Other strict measures include providing detailed itemised lists of horse equipment and veterinary supplies, which will be subject to stringent customs checks. Only unopened and sealed veterinary products are allowed, while straw and wood cannot be imported into Brazil. Shavings will be used as bedding at Deodoro and no feed, hay or haylage can be re-exported, bar full haynets for the return flight.

Planning such logistics began for Horse Sport Ireland after the 2014 World Equestrian Games in Normandy, where Ireland qualified its event team. “We started to plan once we qualified at WEG,” revealed Triona Connors, Horse Sport Ireland Equestrian Sport Co-ordinator, who is the Irish equestrian competitor’s Team Leader in Rio. “Then the planning really began last August and now we’ve moved into the final phase of collecting pre-validation paperwork and confirming flights.”

According to Triona, who will double as the Irish equestrian Team Leader in Rio, each item of equipment must be identified by a unique identifier code. “So when customs take apart each pallet of equipment and check everything in it, down to a brush or hoofpick, if that item doesn’t have the unique identifier of ‘IRL Triona Connors’ on it, then it’s out,” she added.