Do horses get jet lag?

For the logistician tearing his hair out over careless longshoremen or angry calls from distressed retailers, consider this – it could be worse.

Imagine that the freight might have to endure not one, but two quarantines. Think about consolidating travel information for multiple international entourages. Visualise getting necessary medical histories for each international shipment. And one more thing – make sure the cargo will be ready to run, fast, within days of arrival.

For all the excitement of thoroughbred racing in Dubai, with its multi-million dollar purses and glamorous parties, the logistics behind the ‘Sport of Kings’ is no day at the races.

“It takes so many people to bring one horse,” explains Martin Talty, Manager of the Dubai Racing Club’s International Department. From chartered planes to travelling vets, the process is an obstacle course to be negotiated by teams that must be experts not only in logistics, but the equine temperament as well.

Talty, an “ex-racing journo”, left his native Australia in 1994, passing through Hong Kong and London before arriving in Dubai in 1996. He has been with Dubai Racing since 1999.

“International travel of horses has modernised a lot in the last few years,” says Talty. “It is no longer considered a huge, huge undertaking to ship horses overseas.”

Easy for him to say. Horses begin landing in Dubai in early December and continue to arrive through the second week of March, before the weather gets too hot. According to Talty, horses shipped from South Africa, for instance, must start their first quarantine the preceding July. “They’re quarantined for 40 days in South Africa, then another 30 in Europe.” Once a horse arrives in Dubai, its barn is actually quarantined for the duration of the horses’ time in the country, except for races and morning workouts.

The barns (or ‘boxes’) must be ready before the horses’ arrival. “Just like we like to arrive at a hotel with the room ready and have a hot shower, a horse likes to have his room ready,” says Talty. This begs the question – “Do horses get jet lag?”

“Yeah,” says Talty. “They can get off the plane and run very well five days later. The second race they may fall off a bit, then recover.” Acclimating can be at once easier and more complex than for humans. Differences in water, for instance, may be felt more acutely. Diet is another concern. Each animal arrives with enough feed for a week or so. Some owners may ship their horses’ feed for the duration of its stay; for others, Dubai has its own feed mill where the horses’ diets can be maintained according to familiar specifications. Meanwhile, grooms and vets pay particular attention to the horses’ condition upon arrival. “They’re monitored for the first 48 hours,” says Talty. “They don’t get on the track before then.”

Thoroughbreds must contend with more than jet lag, however. They also need their own passports. “Identification marks, vaccination history… it’s all got to be given within a certain timeframe,” says Talty.

Here the logistics dovetail with equine expertise. Using the Dubai World Cup as an example, Talty explains that the list of entries results from some 1,200 invitations for each of the different races. As acceptances come in, e-mails are sent to the veterinary department as well as the travel department. Janah Management Company, Dubai Racing’s shipper, contacts the trainers and owners with flight information. Horses from the US may fly charter non-stop from either the east or west coast, while European horses usually fly commercial. Horses may travel up to three to a pallet, but that, explained Talty, “is really flying economy.” For the Dubai World Cup, the horses ship two to a pallet, sometimes even taking an entire pallet for a single horse.

Horses also travel with grooms, vets and all their tack. Forgetting to pack the horse’s favourite bit isn’t like replacing a toothbrush in the hotel lobby.