‘Being a King is boring, becoming one is an adventure’ is one saying of Klaus that I try to keep in mind while starting to prepare us and the animals for the biggest adventure in our lives so far. What initially came up as a ‘mad idea’, to move to the other side of the world to study with Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling for a year, has now taken on a very practical side: HOW to get us and possibly a horse or horses across the globe, and stay healthy and sane in the process of doing so.
We were not even thinking of taking a horse with us in the beginning. The idea of putting such a large animal on a plane seemed outright impractical, let alone exorbitantly expensive. But I looked at Anaiis, our 10-year-old Warmblood mare, and thought how great it would be to try and get that oh so special magic connection that I witnessed time and again between Klaus and the horses he worked with during the three courses I attended in 2010. Surely, I owed it to her to give us a chance to experience this journey together?
So the first contact was established with the horse transport company and soon we were talking three horses and a dog on a plane plus ourselves as possible grooms.
The next few weeks were emotional as we watched our animals closely, in the field, in the arena, and again on the video footage we took. And it became painfully clear that this was a journey we simply could not ask of 21-yr-old Gulliver and 17-yr-old Fari. We began to search for suitable agistment places, and found one in Queensland, close to a team of excellent equine professionals, some of whom have known our geldings for years.
The option of having Dubu, our 16-yr-old Bichon Frise travel with us in the air-conditioned, pressurised cargo hold where the horses travel, now seems impossible as Anaiis will travel with unknown horses accompanied by their own groom. Once again, emotions soar as we realise a rather fragile, almost blind and deaf pooch is unlikely to survive being stuck in a cage in the dimly-lit belly of a plane for 30 hours. Dependent he may be, but he still has a zest for life. A life that I cannot end just for my own personal sake…
Our pet sitter of years offers to take him, then declines precisely because of his dependency. We try a temporary separation for a weekend but the truth stares us in the face when we pick him up: totally hoarse and a terribly upset tummy. And only three months left until we leave for Europe! When you think there is no solution, often a solution will present itself and it came in the form of an e-mail from Klaus that the course had been postponed until 1 September. This will give us three more months, in total six and half months together.
It feels good; it feels just right…
I just thought about this: we also brought in october our dog and three cats with us from the USA to Switzerland. The dog had to go as cargo as he was too big, as well as one cat, who could not come on board with us because…the airplanes capacity was only for two cargo pets and two on board!!! So just two cats travelled with us on board the aircraft. Both did very well…
we must have been a peculair sight arriving at the Zurich airport: 10 pieces luggage, 11 handluggage including two violins, in tow 4 children and a dog and three cats!!!!