How do equestrian horses get to the Olympics?

Transporting athletes to the Olympics may not sound like a complicated process — but it is when those Olympians are horses. That's right, equestrian horses have to travel to the Olympics, just like their riders, but the process of getting them there, especially when the competition is overseas, is complex.

We wondered whether the horses are shipped over? Do they go by plane? Do they have passports? And do they have to suffer plane food like the rest of us? We decided to find out.

Imagine flying to the Tokyo Olympics in business class, enjoying in-flight meals and even grooming. That's how the Olympic horses travelled as they jetted off to Tokyo in time to compete. 

The horses even have their own passports. 

More than 300 horses have travelled to Tokyo to compete in the Olympics and Paralympics. Aeroplanes, 19 of them, and 185 truck journeys were needed to transport the equine passengers, The Chronicle of the Horse reported. 

But the horses don't travel alone; with them comes a team of people to get them Olympics-ready. The US equestrian includes four travelling reserve riders, who are ready to compete in the case of an injury. There are seven coaches, six team leaders and 16 grooms, who are there to care for the horses.

According to the British Equestrian Olympic team, each horse has an individual limit for the flight, which includes its own weight plus items such as water buckets, tag bags and rugs. It's unclear how much space there is for bringing back souvenirs from Copacabana beach.

This year, according to Forbes, the US Equestrian horses had a different journey to Tokyo than they usually would.

Equestrian horses travel on freight flights in business class, where they're placed two to a stall. This part of the process can be incredibly expensive, and the increased costs during the pandemic led US equestrians to go a different route.

Instead of scheduling direct flights from the US to Tokyo, which were few and far between and even more expensive than usual, the team divided the trip into two legs. First, this spring, the US-based horses travelled to Liège, Belgium, to quarantine, rest, and train. From there, they were able to share flights with other Europe-based teams in order to reach Tokyo.

After arrival, they go through another series of checks and eventually are transported to the Olympic stables, where they are trained and taken care of leading up to their events.

Of course, flying horses comes with its own challenges. But it's not so different from what their human partners will experience.

"Just like a human that flies – some people like it, some people don't," said Richard Picken, who had a business flying horses for more than a decade, said about the Rio Olympics in 2016. "Same with the horses, really."

Another challenge when transporting horses is loading the luggage and equipment. Each horse's groom and vet are responsible for packing everything they'll need for a month. The U.S. team is known for overpacking, with the haul also containing about 1,000 pounds of feed and vitamins for the horses, Forbes reported. 

"When you're on a passenger plane you'll experience a positive landing where they brake quite hard, but with horses, they do a longer landing so they don't feel that sudden deceleration," explains British Eventing Team vet Liz Brown.

Transporting Olympic horses is a massive undertaking, to say the least, but it's all about making sure that they're in the best shape possible, like any other athletes, ahead of the biggest competition of their careers.