The freight carried from Europe alone—not including the horses themselves—will total 123,500 tons of equipment, including saddles, bridles, rugs, grooming kits, wheelbarrows, pitch forks, and horse shoes, as well as 51 tons of feed and in-flight snacks and 20 liters of water per horse. | Photo: FEI/Hippo Foto--Dirk Caremans

The largest commercial equine airlift ever undertaken in the history of horse sport has begun ahead of the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI) World Equestrian Games (WEG) Tryon 2018, which get underway in North Carolina on Sept. 11.

The first 67 of a total 550 supremely fit airborne equine athletes have arrived at the Tryon International Equestrian Center, nine days before the start of one of the biggest sporting events on U.S. soil this year.

They will join a further 270 horses coming overland to team up with their human partners from more than 70 countries at the WEG, which are world championships in all of the FEI’s eight disciplines and qualifiers for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games