Horses treated with care to ensure safety
Print Edition
THE 80 horses competing in Shanghai for the Global Champions Tour equestrian event received “double room VIP service” during their 16-hour trip from Belgium.
Each horse is worth an average of 2 million euros (US$2.7 million), thus a great deal of logistics work has gone into ensuring the horses will be safe and comfortable during the flight. Event organizers teamed up with FedEx Express China to find an appropriate solution.
Each 18-cubic-meter compartment held two horses. FedEx transported the animals to Shanghai, via Dubai, on two different MD-11 cargo flights — one on May 30, the other on June 1 — since they had only 20 compartments, according to Eddy Chan, head of FedEx Express China.
More than 20 grooms, along with veterinarians and a commissioner, who acts as a liaison between the captain and the animals’ caretakers, joined the horses on the trip.
The plane was equipped with oxygen and a ventilation system. The temperature inside the cabin was kept between 15 and 21 degrees Celsius to ensure the horses are comfortable.
“The plane jostles around a bit when encountering turbulence, but the grooms are experienced in comforting the animals during such occasions,” Chan said. “Plus our pilots give advance warning if they expect any turbulence.”
Of course, the plane carried plenty of hay and grass to feed the horses during the long flight.
Once on the ground seven special vehicles, including two donated by the Hong Kong Equestrian Federation, transported the horses to stables near the Pudong arena where they will compete. Precautions have also been taken to ensure they do not come into any contact with other animals to prevent the spread of any possible disease.
Yang Yibin, marketing director of Juss Event, the organizer, said transport and quarantine issues were the two main challenges organizers faced in securing approval for the event.
The municipal government reached an agreement with the agriculture committee of the European Union to name Shanghai a temporary non-epidemic area from May 31 to June 30. This was necessary since Shanghai isn’t a member of the International Equestrian Federation. If a deal wasn’t reached, the horses would not have been allowed back in Europe since Shanghai wouldn’t have been recognized as a non-epidemic area.
According to standard practice, horses are usually isolated for 45 days before departing Europe. But another exception was made for the Shanghai event, meaning the horses only needed to be inspected for two days before heading to China.
“The municipal government provided a lot of support in lots of different areas to make this event happen,” Yang said.
Pudong airport set aside a special zone for the horses to keep them isolated before they were transported to the arena. A perimeter around the arena was also created to ensure local wildlife doesn’t come into contact with the horses. According to the organizer, male and female horses have been kept separated and if any animal shows signs of disease, it will be isolated from the others immediately.
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