during a flight, but adds it’s good to know that it’s readily available.
Once the flight is at cruising altitude, the grooms can then give the horses hay and water, and the curtains are lifted for better air flow. It’s a fairly long flight, seven and a half hours from Amsterdam to New York, but it’s generally “smooth sailing.” The grooms are allowed to stand at the front of the containers dur- ing take-off and landing to keep close watch on the horses. Richard comments that the horses do remarkably well in the air.
After landing, the flying grooms have to disembark with all the other passengers, go through customs and collect their lug- gage. They quickly take a taxi over to the airline’s cargo area to make certain the horses are A-OK as they are unloaded from the containers and immediately put into a large trailer to be trans- ported to the U.S. Department of Agriculture three-day quaran- tine center. For New York arrivals, the horses go to Newburg, New York; for Miami and in Los Angeles, the horses are moved to an import facility next to the airport. Once their charges are safely in quarantine, the flying grooms have completed their mission.
Almost Home
All horses, whether a stallion, gelding or mare, must go through a short stay at the USDA approved quarantine facility for two and a half to three days. Each horse is in complete isolation for that time and receives various tests. As long as the test results come back negative, all horses under two years of age (730 days) and all geldings can immediately be released to trailer to their new home.
If it is a mare or stallion two years or older, he or she must be relocated to a special second quarantine and testing farm called a CEM (Contagious Equine Metritis) quarantine center. Sharon Clark is the owner/manager of Rigbie Farm in Darlington, Maryland, which has been in operation as an approved CEM quarantine farm for more than 20 years.
Contagious Equine Metritis is a highly contagious venereal disease passable from stallion to mare or mare to stallion during mating or teasing. Even stallion to stallion infection can occur via the semen collection process. The mare or stallion is tested for CEM while in Europe just before the trip to the U.S. Any horse test- ing positive cannot be admitted to the U.S. Because of the elu- sive nature of the organism, further testing for CEM is mandated by the USDA_APHIS once the horse arrives in the U.S. Mares undergo further culturing and stallions have to live breed two test mares.
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Above:A Hanoverian gelding in Frankfurt prepares for loading into a container.
Below: Horse container ready to be lifted into the cargo area.
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