and you’d have to bring extra bedding because the stalls had concrete floors. It was old and rundown; there was no place to walk the horses before flying, and for the most part you’d be there for about eight hours before the flight. You literally had a courtyard that was maybe a ten-meter circle to walk the horses around. We spend so much time doing things right for these horses, so it always seemed crazy that that you’d go spend eight hours in this situation.” She adds things didn’t improve much after leaving the
Vetport. “You and your horse would be picked up, depend- ing on the flight, probably six hours before the flight and be taken to the cargo airport, where you’d be checked through immigration, and the horses would be loaded on the crate (jet stall). They could be on there for two to five hours. Horses are last on the plane, so they can be first off, but if something went wrong they just had to stand there on the crate.” “Obviously the new facilities will benefit the horses immensely. Basically anything that decreases the stress levels for horses and humans is a good thing any time,” she adds. At The Ark, horses wait in comfort until their flight and the number of steps to get horses from stall to plane have been reduced dramatically. Today horses are led directly up a ramp and into the jet stall from the barn, then put right on the plane. If there is a delay, they wait in comfort in the stables, which are located “airside live,” meaning directly at the airport. Max Corcoran, longtime groom for top eventer Karen
O’Connor and currently grooming for show jumper Scotty Keach, consulted with the owners on the operation of The Ark at JFK. Max has also had numerous experiences flying through JFK as a groom and remarks, “The Vetport should be condemned. You walk in there and there might be about five horses shoved into a single stall. It’s fairly shocking. You’re only there for about six hours, but they’ve already been on the truck maybe six hours and they’ll stand on the plane for eight hours. It’s so dirty; it’s just awful.” “In contrast The Ark is big and open and airy. From the
Vetport you had to trailer to the tarmac and transfer horses onto the pallets; at The Ark the horses walk straight out of their stalls and onto the pallets. It’s another way to eliminate things going wrong,” she continues. “If the plane has issues the horse can stay in the stall. I’ve had horses stand on the pallet for hours waiting for the plane to be fixed.”
Happier Horses The new import/quarantine facilities were still under construction when a media tour of the facilities took place earlier this year, but the export facilities were already in use. And if the Vetport was the equivalent of a rent-by-the-hour roadside motel, The Ark is more like a room at New York City’s famed Plaza Hotel. The open, airy design is ventilated with large industrial fans and a special ventilation system ensures fresh, clean air for occupants. The stables feature high-tech antimicro- bial rubber mats on the floors to prevent slipping, which are removed from the stalls and disinfected between visitors. The
32 May/June 2017
ample supply of bedding is disposed of in an incinerator on the grounds after use. There are 24 resting stalls in the export facilities. The fee
for a horse traveling through the export side of The Ark is $350 and includes fresh shavings and water and high-quality timothy hay, though owners are welcome to send feed with an individual horse. (The import/quarantine facility fees will be based on current U.S. Department of Agriculture rates.) Soothing music plays in the barn to help horses and humans relax, and for horses in quarantine, video monitors allow owners to log in and check on their equines. “We offer veterinary services, a blood testing lab, as well
Opposite, top: The new export stable area of The Ark. Above, top: The scale that weighs the horses before flying, so that stalls can be positioned by weight on the plane. Middle: Ramp to load horses into the jet stalls. Bottom: The Ark’s owner John Cuticelli and the Director of Administration Kristen McGowan.
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