Horses cannot travel in the usual planes that you and I would travel in – they have to travel in cargo planes, and not all cargo planes can carry horses – so moving from A to B is not as simple as it is for humans.

Each country has a specific set of rules for importing and exporting horses, and not all countries accept horses from other countries, so sometimes movement might be via another country, where rules have to be complied with before horses can move on to the next country.

Sometimes it is just too difficult or too expensive to get a horse into a certain country, due to the requirements or the lack of country-to-country protocol.

Countries on what needs to be complied with before shipping set the protocol – each country would have its own import protocol. So to send a horse to country A might have a very different procedure than sending it to Country B. Some can be very time consuming and frustrating, while others are simpler.

Paperwork aside, the shipping can be frustrating, as cargo flights don’t always operate to the same timeframe as passenger flights, they can be delayed, diverted, cancelled and even moved forward to an earlier time. They also don’t run as often as you might think – sometimes once a fortnight or even only once a month.

The type of containers that horses travel in varies according to the type of airplane – here we will show you some photos of different shipments that we have completed.

Frequently asked Questions

Are the horses sedated?

Not usually, as they usually don’t need it, they are generally used to travelling and it is just like going in a lorry from their point of view.

Do they go in the pallet easily?

It is like travelling them in a lorry, most walk in happily but the occasional one doesn’t want to go in. We try to read the horses behavior and work according to the character of the horse, if it seems anxious then we put another braver one in first, the anxious one will usually go in easily once another one is in.

Do you feed them in flight?

Their diet for the journey is just hay and water, they get offered water throughout the trip by the traveling groom, the water intake is monitored, as some horses will not drink during the journey and then the information is passed over on landing so that the intake can be monitored on arrival, if a horse gets too dehydrated then it has no desire to drink, so this little snippet of information is critical to the well-being of the horse on landing.

We don’t offer hard feed as hay is sufficient and gives them something to munch on throughout the journey, we also don’t want to increase the likelihood of colic.

What about delays?

If the horses have a transit, or a delay, we generally leave them on board the pallet, they are fairly safe in there, so leaving them inside reduces any risk of injury from loading and unloading, some airports have no safe unloading facilities, and in cases like that it is not an option to unload them.

Are travelling boots and bandages required?

We don’t like to travel the horses with anything on – boots may slip and become uncomfortable, they cannot be removed mid flight, as access to the legs is impossible. Tail bandages can be too tight or too loose, may slip and again access is not possible, so we avoid them too. As the temperature is controlled they do not need rugs, these can be taken for arrival, along with boots for the lorry part of the trip, but we avoid it for in flight. There is a slight risk of injury loading and unloading but the risk of boots and bandages causing harm in flight could be greater.