This is the top gun of the flights, you know, it's the best of the best, so you have to be
on your mettle.
We're very excited to operate the first out of 15 flights to and from Tokyo to bring
these Olympic horses to the Olympic Games.
We did Rio and now we do Tokyo.
It's really special because it's all over the world.
Everybody knows the Olympics and we are very proud to be part of this logistic chain.
I don't know if it's unusual, but I did it several times and it's a pleasure.
Of course, we are responsible not only for our own ones, but also the team horses and
for also other horses, individual horses.
It's just a little team on the plane and we try to come through it.
So all the horses have had to be in quarantine for seven days before they go to
Japan, which is when they are isolated from any other horses, and then they travel from
there to the airport by road.
We have an awful lot of equipment, the saddles, bridles, the food.
We've got about 100000 kilos of equipment, 60000 kilos of horse feed going to to take
here. They have to eat. Then they arrive at the airport, they park up and then some
horses will go into the stables here just to have a little relaxation.
We call them off in order of the the load plan that we've already arranged.
They walk through into the loading area behind us.
We load them into the containers.
They're going to buy two once we've already three containers.
We close them up and we take them off to the aircraft and then they're positioned in the
aircraft and we keep that going until we finish.
So we got a 36 horses on the flight today.
We have approximately ten people on the flight.
On every flight is a Peden professional groom so they are guys that fly with horses
all the time, that's their entire job.
We've today we've got one of our top grooms, Matt Brooks.
He's flying for many years.
We don't really want to be disturbing them on the flight.
We want them to relax and to sleep.
And we want a boring flight.
We want no excitement.
We want them to be there in their stall and relaxed.
They've all got wide stalls today, so they're all in business class.
That's really good. Today should be a good flight.
We also have what we call federation, the National Federation, grooms that flight.
So some of them are the actual grooms of the horses, then also we've got vets from
federations as well.
I'm going to be quite busy, I've got four horses.
The other grooms have all flown ahead.
So I've got the horses from Carl, Charlotte, Lottie Fry and Gareth Hughes, our
reserve rider, so it's quite a big responsibility.
I've got three that haven't flown before, so I'll be making sure they are happy and
relaxed. They get their feed at the right time, the right feeds for the right horses,
keep them hydrated.
That's really important when flying and especially such a long way.
There is definitely one athlete.
Yes, there's a German dressage rider who's on the plane, who always flies with her
horse Isabell Werth, that she's probably one of the most traveled athletes with a horse
around, I should think. It's always, always a pleasure to have her.
She's very professional.
She knows exactly what she wants.
And you don't argue with her.
Oh, we have to take care of the horses.
We have to see that they are quiet, that they get their feed and that they drink.
So we try to to check everything that they are happy and that we arrive in Tokyo the
right way - fit and healthy.
So many people want to know how the horses are loaded on the aircraft.
The aircraft is a cargo aircraft, it's a tube with nothing in it.
Always we have to try and keep the stallions at the front of the aircraft.
So therefore they can't smell the mares as otherwise they get excited.
So we have a very strict plan on how the aircraft is loaded.
We have got on this flight, we've got a few stallions they're at the front and then we
try to put geldings in between, and then mares.
As you can see, it's a full freight aircraft.
It's a Boeing 777, the biggest twin engine aircraft in the world.
Today our weight we carry to Dubai is about 75tonnes, more or less of horses and a bit
additional freight.
The range we can fly this kind of capacity for flights up to approximately 14 to 15
hours. We will depart Liege airport shortly, w e are going through Dubai with a
short stopover to Tokyo Haneda Airport.
The flight was great, a smooth flight.
We take good care of the horses and the grooms.
Horses are sensitive animals.
They don't like turbulence, they like smooth lights, they like cold temperatures to be
maintained during the flight, so that could be a challenge on some trips.
It went perfectly, the authorities all worked with us, Tokyo 2020 worked with us.
We had the aircraft unloaded in two hours and it departed punctually and all horses had a
very, very good flight, so we're very satisfied.
The horse's landed well, so, yeah, now they're here and we are so happy.