Wednesday, June 17, 2020

HORSES: First class travelers by Carolina Yepes



HORSES: First class travelers
Horses travel around the world, always in best conditions.
The equine industry is currently well spread worldwide, because of the great response that all equestrian activities globally have. Here I tell you how horse transport is done between countries and continents.

Fairs, shows, parades, races, contests, games, tournaments and so on, are some horse starring activities that are globally held.


Today, as it is easier to communicate and travel, it has become very usual that horses tour long distances inside cargo planes so they can assist in these events. This horses can be bought in a foreign country by someone who wants to get at the next level in their sport, or animals of unique genetic characteristics, or those which along with their riders, travel far away from their homeland, even to another continent, to participate in a competition.

Some of these competitions are: Olympic program games (reliant on the area you are), or large concentrations in which depending on the geographic region, the weather during wintertime is better and they gather to hold jumping, dressage and polo season like in Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington or HITS in Okala both in Florida (USA), or racing events that occur throughout the year in countries such as Australia, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.


These high-performance horses are also high performance athletes and even the journeys are close or far, those are always part of their schedules; But no matter how used they are to travel, each step involved in their mobilization is critical to accomplish the goal safety and in time compliance.
Colombia  (South America) is a country where passion for horses, mainly horse riding, jumping, polo, dressage, raid, quarter horses, draft horses and ponies, has made the arrival of horses a constant during all times of the year as well as departures to participate in some of the above-mentioned competitions.

“SAM Asesores (Impo-Expo)” runs in Bogotá, Colombia  managed by Sergio Mojica, who has been for over 15 years importing and exporting horses, fulfilling all health authorities and customs regulations for the interested countries, making a difference by his service because of his planning, commitment and high qualified personal to meet the needs of the horses and their owners, making all the process as quick as possible and within the highest quality standards. That is why SAM Asesores accomplishes around 30 importations of 150 horses per year.

Horses arrive in Colombia from different countries in Europe and America mainly and depending on health authorities’ laws on the origin and destination countries, all specific protocols might be complied with. On a regular basis, horses get to and leave airports in well-conditioned trucks, so they can travel comfortable, sound, and safe.

Once at the airport and with all documentation in order, horses will be fit in a pallet and the pallets will be placed inside cargo planes, which also meet environmental conditions such as temperature, pressure, and humidity, so horses arrive healthy to their destination. But horses do not travel alone. Each flight has a qualified animal handler, who must take care of a maximum of 6 horses during long journeys or stopover flights. These horse companions must bring horses water and hay as needed and attend any health or behavioral event, as well as the recommendations of the crew since these animals’ weigh 600kg (1322lb) on average and an unexpected reaction could threaten flight safety.


When the plane lands and documentation has been submitted, horses will go again in trucks to the quarantine station which must accomplish sanitary and technical policies to guarantee the welfare of horses.

Carolina Yepes
Bogota-Colombia-South America

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