After a three-hour flight, 51 racehorses donated by the Hong Kong Jockey Club to the Chinese Equestrian Association (CEA) arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport on March 17.

Twenty-four of them will be trained for use by competitors from across the world in the modern pentathlon riding event of the 2008 Olympic Games.

The UK company Instoneair, established in 1919, has been responsible for their transportation. It has developed a range of horse containers and livestock pens to fit aircraft, and sent five experienced horse trainers to take care of them during the journey.

According to Chen Huogui, the chief pilot of the special flight, only Air China and China International Air Freight Company are currently qualified to transport these kinds of "special guests" in China, including panda.

"Because these are horses for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, we exempt the transportation fee for the horse containers," said Mr. Guo from the Air Flight Company's marketing department.

Upon landing, the CEA transferred the horses in six large vehicles to a base in a Beijing suburb.

After a quarantine of 30 to 45 days, if they are clear of health problems they will be sent to the Modern Pentathlon Training Base at Beijing Sports University.

"Just like humans, they might not adapt to their local environment at the beginning. So horse feeders from Hong Kong also brought their own water and straw for the first few days. Now the horses have started to drink local water," according to Sun Liping from the training base.

Twenty-seven of the horses will be given to the Tibetan Equestrian Team and Dalian police, and the rest will be trained for the pentathlon event.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club gives racehorses to the CEA every year, but this donation is the largest. Previous horses have been given to equestrian teams in various provinces.

Unlike those used in equestrian events, horses used for modern pentathlon (shooting, fencing, swimming, riding and cross-country running) are provided by the host country.

Athletes compete with horses selected through a random draw 20 minutes prior to the event. The riding event (equestrian show jumping) in the modern pentathlon involves jumping over hurdles of a maximum height of 1.2 m, compared to a maximum of 1.4 m in equestrian events.

According to Sun, the horses from Hong Kong usually get retired at 6 years old, but those used for modern pentathlon can serve eight to 11 years. This batch of horses is around three years old.

Zhang Bin, vice director of the General Administration of the Sports, said the donated racehorses have been eliminated as unsuitable for speed racing, but will be capable of hurdle jumping after training.

(china.org.cn by Wang Qian March 23, 2005)