flying on a 747 with my horse

It's over, and Baasha is in Germany. It was exciting, tiring, and a bit stressful.








Mostly exciting.






The people at SeaTac Cargo Center are really great at their jobs, making putting a horse on a plane a very smooth operation.







They also obviously love their jobs, and made it fun. The quarantine people backed the trailer right up to the airplane horse box, and put the mare in first. Once the mare was in, Baasha, still in the trailer, started banging around and calling and it was pretty impressive sounding. I was like, "Honestly, he's not a wild stallion. If you open the door he'll jump in the box."




There were only the two pilots, both Germans, and a German crew member, and me. There were 6 first class seats right behind the pilots. This was gonna be good. So much space all for me!






When the crew member went into the bedroom to sleep most of the flight, it was really all for me. But first he showed me how to get my own coffee, and where the cold drinks were, and where the cold food was, and the hot food. COOL, I settled into my seat and during take off, I drank coffee. He never turned off his laptop during take off. No normal rules applied, and thankfully they did not start smoking cigarettes!



I went to the horses as often as I could, about every hour. I had to walk this narrow path between the wall of the plane and the cargo to reach them, and if I poured the horses some water, I had to take precautions not to spill any water onto the electric-controlled track system in the floor.





Scary, so I mostly poured the water from inside the horse box itself.

The horse box was, well, kind of like travelling in economy class for people. The poor horses couldn't move but a couple inches in any direction, and they could not even rest their heads on anything. Poor me, I had to crawl thru a tiny escape door under the mare's head everytime I wanted to visit them, struggle down and crawl underneath the haybags which were full of alfalfa. Hay in my pants, shirt, hair, everywhere did not make the flight comfortable for me. I could never shake it all out, and everytime I went back to visit the horses, my clothes filled with hay bits again. That would actually have to be the worst part of the whole thing, cuz I wanted to be with the horses, but it was so uncomfortable to crawl under their hay, and there was really no room for me in the box. I squeezed in next to Baasha, but it was kind of dangerous to be in a tiny metal box with a horse. If he shook his head, he could smash my head into the wall, that kind of thing. I still spent lots of time down there. I even tried to sleep cuz the horses mostly ate and slept. The mare would literally hang her head in the halter to support it. Baasha would rest his lips on the chest rope, so he could rest his head. I finally put his head on my shoulder, and he slept that way. It would get heavier and heavier and heavier. He drank a bit during the flight, the mare just took a sip.

In Calgary we unloaded and loaded more cargo. I spent this time with the horses, and it was the only time they were really stressed. Baasha neighed in fear and pawed the ground obsessively because they kept banging the horse box with this other box about 3 times the size of the horse box. Scary. I was told not to step onto the stairway that led off the plane, or else I'd have to go thru Canadian customs.

Finally we flew into daylight, and I got really sleepy. I looked up and saw one pilot sleeping, and the other reading a magazine. Later, I asked a pilot for something warm to eat, and he made me my dinner. Now I know how those plane ovens work. I thought how odd it was that the pilot was serving me dinner!

Finally we were about to land and I asked if I could sit with the pilots. That was so cool. They strapped me into the jumpseat between/behind the pilots and gave me a headset so I could hear ground control talk to them, and I could hear them talk (German) to each other. So cool. I learned how they fly those things, it's all a couple of little dials - one says Heading and the other says Altitude. He would turn the little Heading dial, and the entire plane would tilt. He'd switch from 10K feet to 3K, and the plane would very very slowly descend. I watched them use the brake to slow the engines. I think I could do this. Then the landing strip loomed before us, and for a moment, I thought, "Don't wet yourself." Then the wheels touched the ground it was so smooth, so much smoother than normal, I couldn't beleive it. Totally easy. I said "Danke Schoen!" and unclipped myself.

Luxemburg cargo took us in and let the horses stay the night in their quarantine station. Very nice, the horses were SO TIRED. *I* was so tired.






Cute thing was when the mare's owners arrived: she totally woke up and her eyes were just shining. Her owner started crying, she was so overwhelmed to see her horse. I was spacey and didn't really realize what had all happened. It didn't feel real. Baasha's eyes were half closed and I knew he just wanted them to turn off the lights. I wonder if they ever did. The vet took blood from both of them, Baasha hardly moved. The mare was like, "ENOUGH ALREADY!"

We had to wait 4 hours for our Lux agent, and I'm still really mad about their incompetence. Seattle agent met us where the horses loaded, to me it was logical that the Lux agent meet us where the horses unloaded. No, they didn't leave their office, and expected us to know that. Bad bad agents, and they took a lot of our euros for a job not done.

They issued us some transit documents that allow us to bring the horses to Germany, but it turned out later that the documents did not indicate which horses would travel, it only said "2 live horses" and that was not sufficient for German customs - so I had to pay yet more to have a customs agent come out and take photos of Baasha's freezemark. Thank God he has one.








We put Baasha in the paddock that we built, and the two Arabians who live there came right to him and acted like they couldn't believe their eyes. (The following pictures are all from the first day.)







Baasha, still exhausted, was happy to have a private pen and just relax. The mama shetland pony was adamant that her baby stay far far away from that stranger, everytime the baby came near, she'd gently move her body in between them and shove him away.





She lets teeth and heels fly for all other horses, but her baby gets the gentle herding treatment.







We turned Baasha loose to let him meet them all, and Sharif and Galim followed him around. I think he was looking forlornly for his mare who he spent quarantine and the flight with.

He's been here 4 days now, and I've gone out there first thing every morning to let him out of the pen to slowly get used to grass. The grassy pasture is very green and lush, and he just loves it. I don't think he really has any idea how very far away he is.

I look forward to taking him for a walk around the neighborhood, as soon as I have a horsie-license plate for him.

The mama pony is a total witch to him, running at him with fury anytime he is within 20 meters of her baby. The baby thinks of Baasha as a great big new toy or environment enhancement or something. I found the baby curled up sleeping next to Baasha's pen one morning, so cute! The baby even found a way to sneak thru a crack in the fence to eat Baasha's grain one night. That's fixed now: )

Sharif, the endurance horse, is the herd king and is enjoying his time now expressing his rulership to Baasha. I almost got run over by him twice today, as he ran at Baasha with teeth bared. Pure evil! I hope he settles down eventually.






I have more horse supplies than anything else. That is, I got rid of most of my belongings this year, but I could not part with many of my horse things, like winter blankets, coolers, etc. So I have all these big rubbermaid boxes, now neatly labeled down in our basement storage. You know that movie arachnophobia, where a spider from South America rides on a ship and infects America with poison spiders? Well, at least 2 big nasty American spiders made the journey in my horse boxes, and they are crawling around Germany now, plotting our doom. *shiver*

It is wonderful to care for my horse myself. The owner of the property is going away tomorrow for a week, and I get night duty: feedings and pasture cleaning. Yay! I am gonna get in shape - picking out the pasture, 5 wheelbarrow loads and hills, hard work! My poor aching back hasn't hurt like this since, well..since last time I cared for my horse myself! BTW, it's a private pasture, not an official riding stable, and that's nice cuz there will be 24 hour turnout. I had to find that before I could bring Baasha here, and I'm so glad I have this place, until we buy our own. And it's only 17 minutes from our apartment, and no freeways.

I wonder if Baasha has noticed the language difference. I wish he could tell me what he thinks of this whole change. I'm happy to have the chance, finally, to get to know him better. I hope he knows how dearly I love him, that I cannot live without him, and that is why he had to endure that.