44 SIDELINES SEPTEMBER 2014
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
By Darlene Ricker
For most of us the days leading up to a horse show are crunch
time, particularly when it comes to getting the horse to the show
grounds. Is the trailer packed? Tire pressure okay? Gas tank full?
What time do we need to leave?
But for horses destined for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian
Games 2014 in Normandy, the game plan was implemented
months ahead so they’d arrive in Europe long before the Games
began.
The shipping scenario for the Games has varied from year
to year since their inception in 1990, depending largely on the
transport laws of the host nation. In many respects, this seventh
edition of the Games has presented a less complex issue for
horse transport and lodging than four years ago in Kentucky.
Most of this is owing to logistics. Many top contenders for the
Games, particularly show jumpers, are permanently based in
Europe. Australian jumping team member Amy Graham opened
her new training center, Haras du Ry, last fall in Normandy. In fact,
nearly three-quarters of the top French show jumpers hail from
Normandy and most of them — including superstar Kevin Staut,
Florian Angot and Pénélope Leprevost — live within 20 minutes of
D’Ornano Stadium, where the jumping competition will take place
Sept. 2–7.
“Eighty-five percent of all horses competing at the Games (in
any year) are based in Europe,” noted Martin Atock, managing
director of Peden Bloodstock, the official shipping agent for
Normandy 2014. Of the 714 mounts that competed in Lexington,
Peden flew all 493 international horses, most of which came
e
A Ride of a Different Kind:
2014 Games Horses Wing Their Way To Normandy
from Europe. Close to 1,000 horses are expected to compete in
Normandy.
Most Normandy contenders have been competing this summer
in major events on the European circuit, a path that’s routine for
top show jumpers every year. So in terms of travel, this summer
has pretty much been par for the course for them.
There’s another factor that helps simplify the horse transport
equation for 2014: Because many Games horses have been in
Europe over the summer, they have no need to make a major
climate or time zone adjustment in Normandy. (That was not the
case in 2010, when many horses were flown into the U.S. from
different climates all over the world, and Kentucky is usually rather
hot and humid in early fall.)
Nor will horses need to travel early to the 2016 Summer Olympic
Games in Rio de Janeiro to acclimate. Although seasons there
are the reverse of those in Europe and North America, there will
be no climatic reason to fly the horses in early, as Rio enjoys
mild Southern Hemisphere winters. (At the 1968 Olympic Games,
there was an additional complication that required early transport
of horses: the altitude. With Mexico City more than a mile high,
the rarefied air had 30 percent less oxygen, posing major health
and performance challenges in disciplines that require stamina
and speed for long stretches of time, such as three-day eventing.)
Another factor is that quarantine regulations are very different
for horses coming into France than they were for horses that
shipped to Lexington from overseas. Unlike the United States,
most European nations, including France, do not require foreign
horses to be quarantined when they enter their borders from other
European Union member states. That’s not to say that equine
