TRANSPORT
ANIMAL
by monitoring heart rates,
respiratory frequency, air quality
and external temperatures. The
grooms will receive alerts when,
for example, a horse’s body
temperature rises suddenly.
They can check if the external
temperature in the container is
too high, or the blanket has got
stuck between a horse’s legs, or
there’s no more hay or water, or
horses so much. I’ve been living out my dream since my parents
their neighbour is biting them.”
could not afford lessons when I was a child. But I’m still not a good
All the data will be logged
horse rider. I sit on it, but don’t ride it!”
and be easily accessible at a later
date. Vande Cappelle says that
The competition circuit
it will provide clear evidence
Belgium is known worldwide for show jumping and about 70% of
of horses’ preferences. “Our
EHS’s shipments are for competitive events. “It’s like the Formula
experience suggests large show
1 circuit. In summer, there are competitions in Europe, then they
jumping horses prefer to travel
move to Florida, then Canada, but there are other events in China,
business class, which means
South America and Mexico. We ship horses all over the world for
two horses per container, rather
Bill Gates’ daughter Jennifer, Bruce Springsteen’s daughter Jessica
than economy class, when
and Steve Jobs’ daughter Eve. We work for Georgina Bloomberg,
there are three. We think the
who owns a professional equestrian team and is the daughter of the
extra space means they’re less
former New York Mayor, Michael Bloomberg.”
likely to fall ill, or panic, on
Less publicly, EHS organises horse shipments for Hollywood
long journeys. After all, they’re
athletes and we wouldn’t
impose cramped conditions on
Usain Bolt or Novac Djokovic,
before a competition. It seems
like common sense, but the
international federations always
say ‘yes, maybe, but can you
prove it?’ Now we hope to
provide hard evidence,” he says.
For owners, there will be
reassuringly detailed online
profiles of horses’ likes and
dislikes. “The idea is that if in
a couple of years, one of the
grooms looks up a horse called
Zorro, they’ll see he has been
on six flights and had three
incidents. They’ll be able to
anticipate the source of the
problems. If there are multiple
incidents, owners might
consider business class. Or Zorro
may be an easy horse with no
incidents,” he said.
Though extreme reactions
are uncommon, horses are
powerful animals and capable
to five days after landing. She has designed a questionnaire that
of damaging an aircraft when
the grooms can fill in after observing the animals and will provide
distressed. Vande Cappelle
guidance on how to complete it. When the animals are quarantined
recalls a panicked horse
on landing, a vet will continue to collect the data. The intention movie stars and music divas, whose anonymity is protected. One
famous American movie actress brings her horse to Switzerland
secretly every few months, then flies it back a few weeks later to
California, where the media assumes she resides permanently.
Other rich owners take their horses on holiday when they winter in
Florida, then fly them back to Europe, or to the other side of the US.
“Unfortunately, when it comes to flying horses, it’s mainly only rich
people who can afford it. They weigh 600 kilogrammes and take up
a lot of space. The more space you take, the higher the price. It costs
peanuts to ship dogs and cats by comparison,” he said.
Problems with road transport
Padalino previously conducted research into the transportation
of horses by road, which can be stressful over long distances. In
Australia, for example, horses are trucked between Perth and Sydney,
which takes four days. Padalino says that there have been only a
handful of small scale studies of animals in air cargo and the current
study is “by far the biggest ever carried out.”
“We are aiming to get big data by looking at 1,000 horses. When
you have big data you are able to analyse precisely the hazards and
risk factors for various diseases, especially ‘shipping fever’, which
is a type of pneumonia, but also colic and laminitis, a painful hoof
condition. We’ll be considering, too, to what extent they suffer from
jet lag when travelling to different time zones as well as the dangers
of self-injury, especially when they’re being loaded and unloaded
into the stalls,” she explains.
Padalino will collect the data about the horses from pre-journey
Horse transportation is big business
today, albeit for a select clientele
EQUINE
TRANSPORT:
AN INDUSTRY
SYNOPSIS
Charlie McMullen is Director at
Intradco.
“We have seen the equine
market performing quite steadily,
with no major changes in the usual
routes of racehorses and sports
horses. International transport
for sport horses saw a massive
increase in demand over the last
ten years, but the growth has now
slowed, but is certainly the largest
area within the equine market now.
Racing is developing more traction
in some new markets, namely Saudi,
where some landmark races are
debuting in 2020.
“Livestock is where we have
seen various volatilities in the
market. Commercial livestock
that often use shipping/vessel
transport methods is being affected
by several external factors, which
has created extra demand for
air freight. The issue of African
Swine Fever across a majority of
mainland China and now other Far
East countries has affected the
transport of live breeding pigs.
Although this has caused issues for
the breeders, they are confident a
good opportunity will arise soon.”
destroying half a container
with kicks on a flight between
Amsterdam and Sao Paolo a few
years ago. “The pilot didn’t want
to take risks and landed on a
small island in the ocean, where
the horse had to be picked up
two weeks later. Mostly, when
they kick, they are bored, but it
could be a sign of extreme stress,
so we have to make sure,” he
says.
“I say I’ve never worked a
day in my life because I love
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