The brief

For top athletes, performance is all about preparation. Distraction can throw you off your stride – not ideal for an elite showjumping horse. Competing over obstacles up to two metres high requires agility, balance and composure.

Composure was paramount when, as founding partner, Cathay Cargo was asked by show organiser HPower International to carry the elite showjumpers to the Longines Hong Kong International Horse Show for the second year running, building on the well-worked plan from 2025. This year, Cathay Cargo transported 51 showjumpers, nine Shetland ponies for mini-races and seven dogs for a display team.

For their short stay in Hong Kong, the horses were quarantined at AsiaWorld-Expo, which hosted the event and stabled them. But with little time for rehearsal, they needed to arrive ready to perform – a test for Cathay Cargo’s We Know How credentials. “It’s the assurance and peace of mind that Cathay Cargo provides that means the riders and organisers can focus on the show,” says Event Director Jo Peck at HPower International.

The plan

As last year, the horses gathered from across the United Kingdom and Europe at Liège Airport in Belgium to await the charter flight to Hong Kong on board one of Cathay Cargo’s Boeing 747-8Fs. The airport is blessed with outstanding facilities for horses.

“The Horse Inn facility is unique,” says Jean Luc Py, Area Cargo Manager France and Benelux. “It’s a five-star hotel for horses and also offers excellent facilities for airlines handling horses. Everything here is designed around horses’ wellbeing.”

There are few better places to await the arrival of the rest of overseas touring party.

Preparation

Cathay Cargo was the first carrier in Asia to achieve IATA’s CEIV Live Animals accreditation. That assurance underpins its Cathay Live Animal specialist shipment solution, ensuring every animal travels safely and comfortably.

But the weather had other plans. The chartered freighter was caught up in bad weather on its penultimate tag in the Americas before crossing the Atlantic to Liège. There was heavy snow in Toronto, where ramp teams had to manually shovel the centreline on the taxiway and the bay so that the aircraft could park safely. With John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) similarly affected, the remaining cargo was offloaded and trucked to New York to prevent further disruption – a Herculean task in wintry conditions. The Cathay Cargo aircraft was the sole freighter departure from Toronto that day, with horses at Liège the prime consideration.

Premium onboard service

Over the Atlantic in Liege, calm prevailed. As the plane arrived, the horses were loaded into their stalls: horses can travel in solo stalls, up to units designed for four, but these were premium guests, travelling in premier equine comfort in two-horse stalls.

On board, Deputy Flying Training Manager (Boeing) Captain Jason Chow kept the main deck at 15 degrees, but adjusted lower at the grooms’ request. This is because the horses’ body heat warms the stalls to a few degrees more than the ambient temperature of the main deck. “We were happy to do this instantly,” he says.

Captain Chow ensured as smooth a flight as possible. “We’re very conscious of the precious cargo we carry,” he says. “I think we’re possibly more conscious of the turbulence and comfort for the horses than passengers because they’re on their feet for 11 hours, and we can’t warn them about any bumps that we can’t avoid.”

As it happened, it was a smooth flight, and the four grooms – on their second Cathay Cargo flight – remarked that “these were the best experiences that they’d had in terms of their own comfort, but also in terms of space on the main deck for them to walk around and check on the horses,” adds Captain Chow.

Arrival and transfer

On arrival, the aircraft parked close to the Cathay Cargo Terminal to reduce ramp transfer time – part of a plan devised by the Cargo Operations Centre (COC) to make unloading and transfer as smooth and stress-free as possible.

Cargo Duty Officer Carlos Chan says this included offloading and transporting the horses two stalls at a time to the Horse Reception Area, reducing exposure to noise and bustle. “The dollies were driven very slowly to reduce movement and to enable the grooms to walk alongside the stalls,” says Chan.

The reception area has a rubberised floor for comfort, and the state-of-the-art horse transporters create a sealed area that enable the vet to assess the horses as they transfer from stalls to truck with a lap of the enclosure. It was a smooth process, and once loaded, they were taken directly to AsiaWorld-Expo.

“Transporting these world-class equine athletes was both a privilege and a huge responsibility,” says Director Cargo Dominic Perret. “We understand the pressure riders and owners face ahead of elite competition, which is why our role is to eliminate travel as a source of stress. The organisers tell me that the horses were the most relaxed and content that they’d seen after a long-haul flight for a long time.”

Mission accomplished. Peck adds: “There’s no margin for uncertainty when dealing with equine athletes. That’s why we’re pleased to partner with Cathay Cargo.”