by Liz Cornell


Importing horses from other parts of the globe is not a new phenomenon. In fact horses that compete internationally have more frequent flyer miles than most people. You’ve heard the story before – someone traveled to Europe, saw 50 horses in two days, found their dream Warmblood and had him or her flown over to their new home.


For many of us, the idea of flying a new horse to America sounds scary and full of potential risks. The U.S. government claims that we import an average of 40,000 horses per year, while we export an average of 52,000, which includes sales horses and competition horses. Those figures are surprisingly significant. So actually how difficult is it for horses to fly and settle in to their new homes? Warmbloods Today decided to do some investigating to learn how it all happens.


After speaking with many professionals with much experience in the process of importing horses, we found one consistent theme: find a good, reputable agent. The international transport agent you hire is key to organizing and coordinating the whole process with paperwork, vets, airlines, ground transport, and quarantines on both sides of the pond. So to start, we’ll assume you’ve already hired a terrific agent to take care of these details.


Prepare for Take-Off


Richard Malmgren of Hassler Dressage has been hired as a “flying groom” for numerous clients who want their horses carefully monitored during the trip to the U.S. He has flown on both major airlines used for importing horses, KLM and Lufthansa, acting almost as an “equine flight attendant” with an attentive eye over a particular horse or horses.


Richard comments that some of the planes are all cargo flying nothing but animals and a few people. Other planes fly both people and animals with the back half as cargo (animals) and the front half seating regular human passengers.


Starting from the U.S., Richard begins his journey flying out of Kennedy Airport in New York on a return animal cargo flight to Amsterdam. These flights to


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Richard Malmgren, of Hassler Dressage, an experienced Flying Groom


Amsterdam don’t normally carry many animals into Europe, but occasionally there are horses on board. Once in Amsterdam, after only a very short stay, Richard is back to the Amsterdam airport to begin his task.


It begins with arriving at the airline’s special animal port where Richard goes through a passport and security check. The flying grooms prepare hay nets and water buckets for the trip. The horses arrive by trailer to this port area, where they are then loaded up a ramp into their travel container. Each container has three standing stalls for three horses, but the walls can be adjusted so that there is either two or even just one horse per container. These containers, now filled with precious cargo, are then loaded onto a train that will carry them out to the plane area for loading.


These containers have special curtains that keep the horses from seeing what is going on around them, and its Richard’s opinion that this helps the horses remain calm and quiet dur- ing the loading process. Incidentally, all the other cargo is loaded into the plane first, with the horse containers loaded last using cranes.


Once the horses are settled in their containers, all flying grooms have to be taxied to the regular passenger termi- nals to go through the normal check in with their luggage and passports. Grooms then head to the normal pas- senger gate and are allowed to board the plane during the early boarding process. They have seats at the back of the passenger seating area, where there is access to the cargo area. There is an Animal Flight Attendant in charge, and he or she has the ability to apply sedation if needed to any of the horses if they get too restless. Richard explains he’s never witnessed a horse acting up enough to need sedation


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