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Nearly 100 horses were flown from Europe to Calgary via Boeing 747s to compete in the Spruce Meadows Masters – a record number of “equine athletes” for the prestigious tournament celebrating its 50th anniversary this week.
From Sept. 3-7, more than 100 horses from across the world are taking part in the yearly equestrian show jumping event in Calgary’s Spruce Meadows.
But the journey to bring those international horses to Canada began well in advance, involving all kinds of planning, paperwork and precision to make sure the horses arrived on time and in the best condition possible.
“As soon as we see the whites of their eyes landing on Canadian soil, we are all very, very relieved,” said Martha Worts, sales and operations manager at Overseas Horse Services, a Calgary-based company that organizes horse travel by air.
Similar to a human’s air travel process, Worts said every competing horse has to have a passport issued by the International Federation for Equestrian Sports.
“Within that passport is an ID page, which is the equivalent of a photo, which you would see in a normal human passport,” she said.
“There’s some details about the breeding and the age of the horse and everything. So those details need to match up with the import permit.”
Every horse also needs that import permit to travel to Canada and a health certificate from the country they’re leaving.
With all the paperwork sorted and passport in hoof (figuratively), the Spruce Meadows horse athletes then boarded a cargo Boeing 747 plane from a transportation centre in Liege, Belgium, bound for Calgary. The horses travel two to a stall, “which is sort of the luxury version of traveling,” said Worts.
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It’s no coach experience, she stressed. Worts estimates many of the horses are valued at around $1 million. During the flight, grooms look after the horses, while a veterinarian is also on board for any health-related needs.
After all the transport logistics are sorted, there’s also the matter of keeping the horses in top condition. But Wort said, luckily, these horses are used to travelling and generally stay happy with lots of hay and water at their disposal.
As for jet lag, Worts said “travel affects some horses more than others, the same way it would affect people.” The animals are also scheduled time to recover and rest up before competing, Worts said.
The first jumbo jet carrying 51 of the horses reached Alberta on Aug. 30, where they were brought to the International Animal Lounge situated in the Calgary International Airport, a facility outfitted with 12 custom-designed horse stalls.
In the last leg of their trip, the horses are transported to Spruce Meadows for tournament preparation, many of them competing in the CPKC International grand prix – the final competition. This year, that event is offering a $5-million prize purse, making it the largest ever in the show jumping competition.
For Ian Allison, a senior vice-president with Spruce Meadows, it’s the exciting climax to the five-day event.
“The top 40 in the world will have qualified through the week to get there and we have our defending champion from Switzerland, Martin Fuchs, here. He’s also won it back-to-back. And if he could win it three times in a row, that would be historic,” Allison said.
The 33-year-old Swiss show jumper will be competing with his champion grey gelding Leone Jei, who arrived in the second batch of transports earlier this week.
For Worts, as soon as this year’s tournament ends, she’ll get to work planning next year’s horse transports to and from the Spruce Meadows Masters.
Despite the laborious process, Worts said she loves what she does.
“Anything that involves the transportation of animals is inherently tricky, because animals don’t always know that they’re scheduled to be somewhere on time,” Worts said.
“And they just do things that sometimes make it so that we have to change the plan for their travel, right? So every day there’s a new adventure that we have to manage.”
