Pictures: Emirates SkyCargo operates world’s largest air horse charter

Emirates SkyCargo, the freight division of Emirates, is undertaking the world’s largest commercial airlift of horses for a single sporting event, it announced on Monday.

Over 500 horses are being transported by 19 flights to take part in the FEI World Equestrian Games Tryon 2018 in North Carolina, which begins on September 11.

The first flight, carrying 67 horses, flew from Liege, Belgium to Greenville-Spartanburg, US in an Emirates SkyCargo Boeing 777 freighter aircraft.

The specially aircraft has customised stalls with independently air conditioned zones to maintain the right temperature for the horses, which weigh anywhere between 450kg and 840kg.

The freight carried from Europe – not including the horses – will total 123,500 kilos of equipment, ranging from saddles, bridles, rugs and grooming kits, wheelbarrows and pitch forks, horse shoes and all-terrain studs, as well as 51,000 kilos of feed, in-flight snacks and 20 litres of water per horse.

After arrival at Greenville-Spartanburg, the horses from the first flight were transferred directly onto trucks for the 82km journey to Tryon.

Emirates SkyCargo is working with Peden Bloodstock, an international horse transportation specialist, to execute the charter.

Horses will be flying into the US from Liège, Dubai and 11 South American cities including Buenos Aires, Sao Paolo, Santiago, Lima, Montevideo and San José.

“This is the largest commercial airlift of horses in history, with only wartime shipments of horses coming close, so the military precision involved in the logistics is incredible,” said FEI president Ingmar De Vos.

“These horses are finely-tuned equine athletes and are not only very valuable, but they must arrive in peak competition condition, just like their human counterparts.”

The FEI World Equestrian Games are held every four years in the middle of the Olympic cycle.

Taking place from September 11-23 in Tryon this year, the event will give away 29 medals in the Olympic disciplines of eventing, jumping and dressage, the paralympic sport of para-dressage, driving, endurance, reining and vaulting.