Dear Rita,
By the time this blog hits the Internet, I will be in the air with Winyamaro, Gizmo and my trusty right hand rider-assistant trainer-life manager, Casey Dornan-Nilsen. We are flying with KLM from Amsterdam to New York!
I had to make a choice, Rita. I just did not have the money to travel with two horses, so Cadillac is staying home to train and regain fitness after a long recovery from a simple (and very badly timed) injury. He is sound, and he FEELS GREAT (which made the decision difficult), but I don’t have him fit enough to do four Grand Prix tests in the next few weeks.
This has been a decision to lose sleep over for several weeks, but in the end W is fit and ready to go, and I have no concerns that I would be putting him at any unusual risk by riding the Selection Trials with him. Frankly, it is a crappy feeling to have a great horse like Cadillac and have to hold back in competition because I know he isn’t ready to do the test. I don’t have to think twice about going for it with W. He is ready to give 100 percent. So W it is!
W is beside himself. Somebody told him he is flying to the Big Apple.
Rita, you cannot imagine the details that go into this kind of trip! Here is the stuff I ordered before departure:
• A new travel trunk, upright, hard plastic on wheels for tack and equipment
• Travel crate for Gizmo, turbo, with wheels
• New girths
• Blood tests (coggins and piroplasmosis) for W
• Blue EU passport for Gizmo • Travel papers for the horse—EU and import to the USA
• One extra wide box for W, departing on July 21 from Amsterdam to New York, JFK
• One horse escort ticket for CN2
• One normal passenger ticket for me (We are flying with a “combi” flight—half passenger, half cargo.)
• Stowage space for cargo and Gizmo • A spot at the USDA equine quarantine in New York
• Rental car for one month to be picked up at JFK
• Two nights at a hotel that ACCEPTS DOGS near the Newburgh quarantine
• Shipping to New Jersey after release from quarantine
• Stable supplies to be sent to our destination in New Jersey
• Feed to be sent to the stable
• Return flight for CN2. Changeable return flight for me.
We were all set last week to arrive in Gladstone on the 24th when I got a message from the USET saying that the stables and ground would not be able to accept horses until the 29th. Fortunately, Randy Leoni of Hawk Hollow Ranch offered to juggle some space for us on short notice. Thanks for helping out, Randy!
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And thanks to Ryan Torkkeli for house/Gigi sitting while I am away! We are off to JFK and then the quarantine at Newburgh.
I’ll part ways with my crew on the 23rd in order to teach a clinic at the Tigchelaar Stables in Virginia on the 24-25. W, Giz and CN2 will hopefully arrive without mishap at Hawk Hollow on the 24th. CN2 will get it done! And we will all be reunited on the 25th.
The scariest part comes on the 26th when I have to take CN2 back to JFK to catch her flight back home. I’ll be on my own with my best horse and my trusty Corgi! But somebody has to run my business and train all the horses while I’m away, so back to Germany it is for CN2. If only I could clone her.
More soon, Rita, more soon.
I’m Catherine Haddad, and I’m sayin it like it is from Vechta, Germany.
Training Tip of the Day: Does your equine flight kit include tranquilizers and liquid electrolytes? I give the electrolytes every six to eight hours when travelling. I pray that I don’t need the tranquilizers. KLM sends a vet escort with horse shipments. Not all companies do.
