Among the many many obligations Alan Davies has had as a groom, flying horses all over the world has turn into certainly one of his specialist areas of experience. In truth Alan, who will this 12 months step again from his position as full-time groom to Charlotte Dujardin and Carl Hester, estimates that he has been flying horses for about 30 years.
Issues have modified considerably in that point.
“My first flight was out to New York with some showjumpers and in these occasions we used to load them into the airplane and construct crates round them,” revealed Alan, on episode 18 of The Horse & Hound Podcast. “We may even have any variety of folks on the airplane, sitting wherever. I keep in mind sleeping with the horses beneath a Witney blanket going to and from America.”
Now although, horse flights take a restricted variety of folks, often 9, with everybody being required to remain seated with a seatbelt on throughout takeoff and touchdown, and to hold oxygen masks in case of an emergency.
The restrictions on numbers imply that grooms usually take duty for a number of horses on a flight, with Alan taking cost of all of the British group horses when flying out to Tokyo for the Olympics in 2021, and earlier than that the USA for the World Equestrian Video games in 2018.
What does flying horses on planes contain?
So what does flying horses really contain?
“The entire process begins from residence, and I often go away the day earlier than to drive the horses to Liege in Belgium, the place the flights go away from,” explains Alan. “They’ve very nice stabling there so we arrive the evening earlier than and I give the horses a stroll once we get there.
“They carry the crates – which mainly seem like two-horse trailers – to the loading bay, which is an enormous room that’s padded and matted to make it protected for the horses. There’s a fancy schedule for which horses go together with which others within the crates, and the blokes from the transport company go spherical speaking to the grooms about it.
“The horses get loaded into the crates from the loading bay, then the ramps get put up, three crates are linked collectively they usually get towed by a tractor out onto the tarmac,” continues Alan. “It may be fairly noisy, with rattling crates and different planes coming in, so generally I plug their ears, or put ear covers on.
“Then they’re pushed onto a hydraulic raise, which lifts them up the aspect of the airplane, and pushed alongside some runners into the airplane. The entire thing is kind of a feat actually, and might take 4 to 5 hours.”
Alan Davies: ‘Flying horses entails a whole lot of camaraderie’
As soon as on board the airplane, Alan says that flying is definitely fairly a peaceable expertise, explaining that each one the grooms, vets and riders travelling work collectively to assist maintain all of the horses on board comfortable and protected.
“There’s actual camaraderie on flights,” he says.
“Up within the air, it’s fairly peaceable, and often there’s aircon. There’s not a lot area within the crates, so I often take a spare headcollar and twine, a little bit of feed, a canister of water and plenty of carrots and apples. The opposite gear goes in trunks beneath.”
L-R: Valegro settling right into a flight, Alan with Mount St John Freestyle en path to the 2018 World Equestrian Video games, Valegro leaving for the World Cup Closing in Las Vegas 2015
Alan has flown with many horses over his lengthy profession, and explains that all of them react fairly in another way to the expertise, whereas typically coping very effectively.
“It’s superb how effectively horses address all of it – they’re such superb creatures, with the issues we ask them to do.
“Once we flew to Tryon in 2018, I used to be nervous about Hawtins Delicato, however he put himself within the crate along with his head within the nook and as soon as I hung up a haynet he was fantastic. However Mount St John Freestyle was a nosy madam, a proper curtain switcher and she or he was at all times making an attempt to look out. She acquired a proper shock when she noticed the planes on the tarmac – her eyes had been out on stalks.
“It was at all times one thing I cherished about Valegro – he trusted me implicitly to take him all over the world,” provides Alan. “We travelled round 75,000km collectively. I needed to take him on totally different vehicles and boats and trains and planes, and he simply trusted me each time, following me into the crates on the airport and by no means questioning that he was going to be fantastic.
“Valegro really used to like flying. It was simply me and him and we’d be off on an journey and he acquired to eat heaps. Particularly on the lengthy flight to Rio for the Olympics in 2016, I’m certain he was pondering, ‘Daddy’s right here, with a bag of carrots – that is the life’.”
You may also be occupied with:
Credit score: Jon Stroud Media
Credit score: Peter Nixon
Credit score: Jon Stroud Media
Credit score: Future
Horse & Hound journal, out each Thursday, is filled with all the newest information and stories, in addition to interviews, specials, nostalgia, vet and coaching recommendation. Discover how one can get pleasure from the journal delivered to your door each week, plus choices to improve your subscription to entry our on-line service that brings you breaking information and stories in addition to different advantages.