17th September, Remember goes to the airport!

Remy & I ready to load for the trip to the airport

Our final 10 days preparation didn’t quite go to plan as Johann had gotten a very bad case of the flu and was confined to bed for 8 days. We worked away by ourselves with Steffi watching and telling me what she saw so I could improve or change things. We also got some help from Coby (van Baalen) which was very helpful, Johann was back for the last couple of days which was great then to get his views on how I had being doing on my own and sharpened us up a bit.

The day of travel finally arrived on Thursday. I shouldn’t really say ‘finally’ as it came about much quicker than I thought! In the morning Remy came out for a nice leg stretch and some loosening work and then Patrick and I got to work checking that everything was clean, packed, labeled and detailed lists made for each of the trunks so they could go through customs. Thankfully Patrick was there to help me as I do have a habit of, as Patrick says, ‘walking in circles’!

With everything packed and Remy shining we set off for Liege airport at 6 in the evening. Stopping for a quick bite to eat on the way proved interesting when we looked in our wallets and had a combined total of 4 Euro something, oops…

Thankfully Belgian McDonald’s take credit cards!!

Reining Horse

Once we arrived at the airport Peden’s staff were extremely helpful and Remy was offloaded and in his stable in minutes. He then had his dinner and hay while we brought all ‘the stuff’ to the warehouse to be sorted and palletized ready for the morning. Going back to check that Remy was ok also gave us a chance to see some of the other horses heading on his flight. There were Endurance horses, the smallest of the horses there and are the horse equivalent of the long distance runners – lean and wiry. Then there were the Reining horses, easily identified by their long manes and cool tasseled head collars and ropes. Next up were the eventers and finally the dressage horses who towered over the rest in size and muscle.

Patrick and I then went for a bit of a snooze before being back in the stables at 3am to start getting ready for loading which started at 4. This time also gave me a chance to meet up with Marcus (our team vet) and Marian (sister to Irish eventing team member Patricia Ryan) who would be flying with the horses (Remy plus 6 Irish eventers) and fill them in on any of Remy’s quirks and requests.

Loading at the airport

Loading started promptly at 4 and the horses were loaded onto ‘flying stalls’, with either 2 or 3 to a stall (they look a bit like regular horse trailers), Remy was on stall 6 with Mark Kyle’s and Camilla Spears’ horses. Loading all went pretty smoothly with only 1 or 2 horses needing a bit of convincing that they really did want to go to America! Loading was as far as I was allowed to go so after another short snooze Patrick and I headed back to Voerde to get ready for our own flight that evening. I was very relieved when I got a message from Marcus later to say that all horses had travelled well and were settling into their quarantine boxes at Cincinnati airport, which is home for the next 42 hours before being transferred to Kentucky Horse Park.

I am now sitting on a Balcony in Nerja, Spain, looking out over the Mediterranean! We are here for Adrian and Norma’s wedding on Sunday (Adrian is a very good friend of Patrick’s). If it wasn’t WEG next week I’d be very tempted to stay here for a few more days. Early on Monday morning we start the final leg of our journey to Kentucky (via London and Chicago) and will meet up with the rest of the Irish team on Monday evening. I’ll be very glad to sit on Remy again on Tuesday!

Nerja, The calm before the storm...