When two planes landed at Omaha, Nebraska’s Eppley Airfield, airport this week with a total of 51 equine athletes headed for the FEI World Cup Finals, it marked a great equestrian sporting moment. It was also a triumph of shipping logistics for The Dutta Corp., which is based in North Salem, N.Y., and Wellington, Fla., and transports about 5,000 horses annually to competitions around the world.

Fourteen of the horses came from within the United States. The other 37 were international travelers who completed a 4,400-mile journey that started back at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. The flight from Amsterdam to Omaha took about 11 hours, but planning for the journey—which World Cup organizers believe was the first major horse shipment of its kind to Omaha—took months of careful logistical planning.

The Dutta Corp. has been “giving horses wings,” to paraphrase the company’s motto, for 28 years. The Dutta Corp., which also sponsors the U.S. Dressage Team, arranges flights for about 5,000 horses a year to and from international competitions. But Omaha is a little different, says the company’s owner and founder, J. Tim Dutta.

“Everything is special in Omaha, because it’s not routine business,” Dutta said. The CenturyLink Center Omaha doesn’t normally have quarantine facilities, for example. The United States Department of Agriculture, the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and other agencies all worked together, and with Dutta, to get the overseas horses, 10 grooms, and a Fédération Equestre Internationale veterinarian into Omaha for the World Cup Finals.

The 37 horses on the international shipment came from around the world, converging in Amsterdam to catch the Dutta flight. There were blood tests, health certificates, and paperwork to arrange, and the horses all had to arrive in Amsterdam within a two-hour window. The loading process for this larger group of horses took five hours, starting at 2 a.m. Amsterdam time. The horses travel in state-of-the-art travel boxes that a crew hoists into the planes by hydraulic lift.

Horses on the domestic flight, which took place on a plane The Dutta Corp. leased from Tex Sutton Forwarding Company, met at Palm Beach International Airport, which Dutta uses unless President Donald Trump is visiting south Florida. “We and Air Force One share the same parking spot,” Dutta explained. “When he’s around, we’re not allowed to be there.”

Once in Omaha, the horses took ground transport about 2.4 miles to the CenturyLink Center, where the World Cup Finals take place and where the international horses underwent a 48-hour quarantine.

The horses have everything they need within the CenturyLink Center, where organizers arranged for 12’ by 12’ temporary stalls with rubber mats and trucked in 800 tons of dirt, footing, and other materials to help transform the center into an equestrian facility.

“As soon as the competition is over on Sunday night, we’ll prepare for the exit,” said Dutta. “And it all happens in reverse. We get them processed; we get them cleared; we get them home.”

Flying to and from an event, the focus is on the equine passengers’ safety and comfort. When Dutta pilots map out their flight plan, they try to avoid sharp turns and turbulence, for example.

 “It’s the pre-eminent indoor championship event in the world,” Dutta said of the World Cup. “We have the American horses and horses from Qatar to Argentina to Brazil to Europe, as well as from countries like Belarus, Russia, Poland, and Hungary. So it’s exciting.

“I really believe it’s going to be the best conditions of any World Cup,” he added. “The facility is fantastic, the hotel for the riders is just across the street and connected. The horses will have very nice boxes, the competition arena is warm and friendly, and they have a warm-up arena inside the stabling. So I think for horse sport and horse welfare, it will truly be great.”

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