Equestrian – Reem Acra FEI World Cup™ Dressage Final – Las Vegas, USA – 11/04/2015 – Double Olympic champion and Reem Acra FEI World Cup™ Dressage title holder Valegro, who competes for Great Britain in partnership with Charlotte Dujardin, and his groom Alan Davies smile before departing to Las Vegas, USA - Final Mandatory Credit: FEI/Dirk Caremans/Pool Pic Livepic Disclaimer: Free of charge for editorial use. For further information, contact Malina Gueorguiev malina.gueorguiev@fei.org +41 78 750 61 33. EDITORIAL USE ONLY.
Getting one horse to an event at your local competition venue requires a fair amount of kit and logistical planning. So how about loading 40 of the world’s top sport horses onto a plane for the FEI World Cup finals for dressage and jumping in Las Vegas (15-19 April 2015)?
On Saturday (11 April) a hugely valuable cargo was loaded onto the Qatar Airways B777 aircraft at Schiphol Airport in The Netherlands — including dressage royalty Valegro (pictured below with his groom Alan Davies).
Equestrian – Reem Acra FEI World Cup™ Dressage Final – Las Vegas, USA – 11/04/2015 – Double Olympic champion and Reem Acra FEI World Cup™ Dressage title holder Valegro, who competes for Great Britain in partnership with Charlotte Dujardin, and his groom Alan Davies smile before departing to Las Vegas, USA - Final Mandatory Credit: FEI/Dirk Caremans/Pool Pic Livepic Disclaimer: Free of charge for editorial use. For further information, contact Malina Gueorguiev malina.gueorguiev@fei.org +41 78 750 61 33. EDITORIAL USE ONLY.
(Image credit: Dirk Caremans)
“We estimate there’s about €150 million worth of horses on the flight,” said Tim Dutta, the man in charge of transporting these elite equine athletes from Europe to America.
“Horses are just like you and me,” he said. “Some fall asleep before departure and snooze most of the way, and others start praying from the minute they take off and don’t stop until they’ve landed! But the majority of them are like seasoned CEOs, they’ve flown so many times that they just take it all in their stride.”
Flying horses to Las Vegas: facts and figures
The horses were looked after by a team of 10 grooms, under the supervision of the Dutch vet Jan-Hein Swagemakers who works with the German showjumping team.
Each horse is allocated “a stall and a half” in the cargo hold. “We like to keep them together by country,” says Tim. “There are two horses per box and it’s a business-class service. We pay attention to each horse’s little idiosyncrasies and requirements — do they like wet hay, or not? Do we use sea salt to encourage them to drink?”
In all the horses spent 11 hours and 20 minutes in the air.
The temperature on the flight was 17 degrees.
There were 24 geldings, nine stallions and seven mares on board. 26 of these were showjumpers and 14 were dressage horses.
11 pallets of equipment were checked in — including tack, blankets and boots — weighing almost 12,000kg.
On board dining included 120 pre-packed haynets, ad lib water (with optional sea salt), oat bran for mash, mixed feed, carrots and apples.
Stay up to date with the action from Las Vegas World Cup Finals on HorseandHound.co.uk and don’t miss our full report in Horse & Hound magazine, 23 April issue
Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now
Horse & Hound Newsletter
Never miss out on the latest happenings in the equestrian world
A graduate from Durham University, Madeleine joined H&H in 2011 and became Features Editor — producing content across the magazine and website, including the popular inside back cover article ‘The horse that made me’ and the weekly ‘The best of my fun…’ interview. She has written on topics as diverse as hay making and headcams, to hot totty in the horse world and circus horses. Madeleine now works as a freelance feature writer for Country Life, The Telegraph, Horse & Hound, cntraveller.com, The Spectator and The Field, as well as writing obituaries for The Times.
