“Please turn off all cell phones and electronic devices and make sure your tray tables are in an upright position.”
There aren’t many events that are nice enough to make horses fly 2,000 miles to attend, but The Event at Rebecca Farm is one of them. At 6am this morning, 19 horses and 14 people loaded onto a H.E. “Tex” Sutton aircraft parked at the *Baltimore Washington International airport before departing for Kalispell, Montana. The plane is scheduled to pick up a fuel stop in Minneapolis before arriving in Kalispell at 11:15am local. The flight is partially funded by the generous Rebecca Broussard International Developing Riders Grant, of which more than $20,000 each year helps fund the trip to Rebecca Farm, and the flight is organized by the Professional Riders Organization. Sarah Kelly, Hawley Bennett-Awad, and crew will meet the plane with trailers for horses and gear and cars for people to take them to the event. Last year a big crowd greeted the arriving horses and a big crowd is expected again this year, despite the fact that I believe July is Polar Alaskan Bear Trout season in Montana. On Monday, July 25th the same crew will leave Kalispell to return to BWI after hopefully a very successful competition.
Ballynoecastle RM (ridden by Buck Davidson)All The Aces (Buck Davidson)Veronica (Karen O’Connor)Ben (Phillip Dutton)Exponential (Jessica Phoenix)Pavarotti (Jessica Phoenix)Running Wolfe (Juan Larrazabal)Madison Park (Kyle Carter)Che Mr. Wiseguy (Ronald Zabala Goetschel)Che Kairo (Ronald Zabala Goetschel)Master Hill (Ronald Zabala Goetschel)Arthur (Allison Springer)Rafferty’s Rules (Sharon White)Ravenna (Sharon White)Cyrano Z (Carl Bouckaert)Our Questionnaire (Heather Gillette)Ballylaffin Bracken (Kristin Schmolze)Manolo Blahnik (Sara Kozumplik)Shear Mizou (Maya Studenmund)
Karen O’ConnorMax CorcoranEmma FordRonald Zabala GoetschelSharon WhiteMichaela Greenwood (Sharon’s groom)Chelsea Eldridge (Buck’s groom)Jessica PhoenixChristiana OberBritney Lyn Hensman (Jessie’s groom)Heather GilletteJuan Andres LarrazabalGrace Quinn (Alison’s groom)Maya Studenmund
To give everyone an idea of the logistics involved in pulling this off, BWI does not allow for parking of trailers, so all the horses have to be dropped off and are loaded onto the plane directly from trailer ramp to the plane ramp. When the plane returns to BWI on Monday the same thing happens in reverse.
As the horses go into the plane, the stalls are built up around them. The size and behavior of each horse plays a big part in the loading. Horses over 17hh get a stall and a half as well as any horses that need a bigger area to brace their legs. Riders/grooms are limited to one trunk and 2-3 duffel bags of equipment. Pennfield coordinates shipping feed from California to save on weight on the plane and the hay is coordinated in Montana as well. The altitude makes the plane cold, which ensures that the horses do not get too warm, but the people end up sitting in winter coats for the flight. The plane will land at Glacier Park airport, where it will sit on the tarmac for one week while the horses compete.
Once the ordeal of the flight is over, horses and riders can look forward to competing at one of the biggest and best events in the US, which, more importantly, has the best footing in North America right now. Many thanks to Samantha Lendl of PRO for sending us a bunch of information about the flight and happy flying to all of the horses and riders. Go eventing.
