Horses typically have all four feet firmly on the ground and spend their days grazing in a grassy field in the countryside.
They’ll occasionally gallop and jump over fences or obstacles, but that’s the closest most of the gentle mammals get to being in the air.
Some horses do get to fly, however – usually for international events, competitions and races
And Luisa Zissman recently revealed she’s planning to spend £25,000 transporting her six horses back to the UK from war-torn Dubai, by plane.
While it may sound like an unusual mode of transport for the animals, for professional horse groomer Alan Davies – who was named Team GB’s Groom of the Year back in 2015 – it’s very commonplace.
With over 30 years under his belt in the equine industry, Davies has cared for some of the most legendary dressage horses in Britain.
He says, ‘They give me their trust totally. I’ve won the Horse and Hound award which is amazing for me and amazing for grooms. But I think the most incredible achievement is to have the trust of those horses, to take them to these places.’
So how exactly are horses flown across the world – and do they really have passports?
Davies, who has transported the gentle animals ‘all over the world’, explains how the most stressful part of the journey for many horses is the ‘loading and unloading’.
The animals are placed in their own crated areas inside a large cargo plane, while any accompanying humans sit behind the cockpit and return to the horses as soon as it is safe to move around the aircraft.
‘As soon as the pilot says we can go back, we go and tend to them – but we have to take an oxygen mask with us in case anything happens,’ he says.
Pilots also tend to take extra care when flying with horses on board.
‘These days they take off very steadily. It’s not like when you’re flying economy to Benidorm for a holiday,’ Davies adds.
‘The plane goes up much more gradually to give the horses a good ride – and they cope amazingly well.’
One of his most challenging flights came in 2000, when he helped transport 56 horses all the way to Sydney.
The long-haul journey involved stops in Singapore and Dubai, meaning multiple take-offs and landings.
‘That was a big undertaking,’ he says. ‘We had 56 horses on the flight, loading took a long time, the flight was a long time and we had to land and refuel, so that added even more time. It was very challenging to keep the horses healthy and happy.’
Despite the distance, he says the animals ‘travelled fantastically’.
Davies also prefers not to give horses any ‘calmers’ before a flight. Instead, he wants them to stay fully aware of their balance.
‘I like them to know where their legs are and what they’re doing,’ he explains.
As for the ear-popping sensation humans often experience in the air, Davies says no one has been able to confirm whether horses feel the same.
‘There’s no research done. There’s no way of measuring the pressure in their ears,’ he says.
As a precaution, he brings apples and carrots on board to help keep their stomachs moving and encourage chewing during take-off and landing.
‘I’ll give them a carrot once we’ve taken off and once we’ve landed to crunch on. It makes me feel better because that’s what we do if our ears pop,’ he says.
Despite it being so unnatural for a horse to be in the air, Davies says they generally cope remarkably well.
Like humans, they also need documentation before they can fly – and the process takes a lot of planning.
‘They have a microchip, generally in their neck, and they have a passport which records all their markings, any white bits, any whorl – everything is recorded on a diagram, along with their breeding and owners,’ he explains.
Horses also need customs paperwork, health certificates, blood tests taken no more than 30 days before departure and a final vet check within 12 hours of flying.
‘It’s a complicated procedure and there’s a lot of paperwork,’ Davies says.
But after three decades transporting horses across the world, he says one thing has never changed – how well they adapt to the journey.
‘On the whole, they cope so well. They’re generous, amazing creatures.’
