Masters Red Carpet Arrivals

By Paula Parisi September 30, 2015

The stars are out for the Longines Masters of Los Angeles, where no 5* horse costs under $5 million, according to one owner-attendee. The Oct. 1-4 event at the Los Angeles Convention Center has turned the spotlight on the top equine talent from around the world.

Beezie Madden (USA) will take to the field on Simon, owned by Abigail Wexner.  Scott Brash (GBR) is bringing Hello M’Lady and Hello Annie.

Hollywood horses with a huge fan base in Southern California is Cristallo, owned by Show Jumping Syndications and Richard Spooner (who lives in Los Angeles) and Flexible, based in Oregon with owners Rich Fellers and Harry and Molly Chapman, but regularly seen competing on the Socal showgrounds.

Audrey Coulter, another California-based rider riding in the 5* classes, recently purchased last year’s L.A. Masters winner,  Domino vd Middelstede, and also plans to compete on her beautiful bay stallion, Capital Colnardo, whom she acquired from South Africa’s Capital Stud. Most of those horses were already here in North America, either because they live here or were competing at the Spruce Meadows Masters tournament in Calgary, Alberta.

On Saturday, at 5:20 a.m., equine athletes touched down on U.S. soil. Forty-four of the 5* horses  arrived at LAX on an Emirates airline Boeing 777 cargo plane following an 11 hour flight from Liege airport in Belgium. After being unloaded, the athletes were treated to a traditional Southern California experience — a commute on the 405. They stately passengers were driven in a multi-truck caravan to the Los Angeles Convention Center, where they arrived and were unloaded at approximately 6:30 a.m. This second consecutive year of Masters show jumping at the LACC represented one of the largest horse transports in the world; Thoroughbred racing typically ships 5-6 horses per flight.

Schedule information for the Longines Masters of Los Angeles is available here, or click for tickets.

Operation Equestrian Airlift

Event hosts at EEM / Longines were thoughtful to document the precision steps in transporting multi-million dollar show jumpers. Thought many of the horses were already in North America, competing at HITS Saugerties, and at Spruce, the 44 new arrivals from Europe spent 48 hours in quarantine at the Los Angeles Convention Center and start jumping tomorrow. Travel arrangements were made by Filip Vande Cappelle’s European Horse Sport Services, which created a video of last year’s horse transport.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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