The shipment of our horses to Mongolia in both 2004 and 2005 took place in late August/beginning of September, when the density of stinging insects is decreasing but the temperature in Mongolia is still mild.
The transport had four steps:
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1: Horses were loaded in individual wooden crates at Le Villaret and then trucked to the closest airport (Nīmes). The horses were loaded in an order which took account of affinities between individuals: crates containing members of a given family were clustered together. |
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2: An Iliushin 76 cargo plane flew the horses to Khovd, a city 1000 km west of Ulaanbaatar, the Mongolian capital. As for the previous stage, crates containing members of a given family were clustered together. This loading pattern was used in all the following stages. |
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3: A MIAT (Mongolian air company) Antonov 26 cargo plane transported the animals directly to the south of Khomiin Tal. There is no asphalt airstrip there, but the Mongolian pilots landed directly on the steppe. |
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4: A four-wheel drive truck was then used for the final part of the journey to enter the release site, where a temporary electric fence was used to allow the animals to become safely acclimatised. |