How do horses get to the Rio Olympic Games?
By plane of course!
The first group of Olympic horses departed from London Stansted Airport (GBR) today (29 July) on a special cargo plane bound for Rio 2016, marking the start of the Olympic dream for the world’s best equine athletes.
With 34 horses from 10 nations on board, the equine cargo worth multiple millions, was loaded into customized pallets for the almost 12-hour flight that left the UK at 15.20 BST.
Eventing horses from Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Japan, Italy and China are on board Friday’s flight out of Stansted, the first of nine shipments delivering more than 200 horses to Rio International Airport, en route to the Olympic Equestrian Centre in Deodoro Olympic Park.
This highly complex operation involves three hubs in Europe and America: Stansted (GBR), Liege (BEL) and Miami (USA). The competing horses and their riders will represent 43 nations from around the globe in the Olympic disciplines of Dressage, Jumping and Eventing.
Stansted flight facts:
Estimated flight time Stansted – Rio: 11 hours 40 mins
17,500 kgs of horses flying from Stansted
515kg is the average weight of an Eventing horse (630kg is the average weight of a Dressage horse and 610kg for Jumping horses)
9,900kg of horse equipment
6,000 kg of feed (doesn’t include feed they’ll eat on the flight)
40 litres of water per horse
34 Eventing horses – representing Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Japan, Italy and China
In-flight entertainment: What are the horses’ favourite in-flight movies? The Horse Whisperer, Black Beauty, Seabiscuit, National Velvet and its sequel International Velvet.
More about it here