First-class Travel
Transporting horses all over the world is a specialised business. Elizabeth Peplow talks to Fred Parker, who has made it his vocation, about the challenges of life on the hoof.
Another championship party is over and in the cold, grey morning after the night before, the packing begins. A businesslike air hangs over the venue, a former wartime airfield, as horses are dressed, trunks are filled and trucks positioned to head for the four corners of Europe.
A crowd develops as the residents of Castiglione Del Largo, Italy, spy a contest more intriguing than the endurance race itself, a Russian competitor trying to coax a recalcitrant Tersk horse up the ramp.
Elderly men and women set down their shopping gather round and gape, while fellow riders are more subtle, scurrying past with sympathetic sidelong glances.
And then a new diversion arrives and its the Brits who are the focus of attention, as alongside the trailers and vintage lorries with suspect tread, a massive 11-stall Scania horsebox hoves into view.
Against a backdrop of pock-marked hangers with tufts of grass sprouting up from the old runway, the lorry could almost be the Starship Enterprise as driver Fred Parker touches down.
It is worth £115,000 and the British team horses, now ready to load, might well look a touch embarrassed as their Eastern European counterparts stare agog.
Fred's family business, John Parker, has been transporting horses across the world for 25 years, and has kept pace with technology, giving the horses it carries, from a humble Shetland to a £650,000 show jumping stallion, an increasingly comfortable ride.
Fred's pride and joy, with its customised Whittaker body, will clock up 1,250,000km in five years. On this day, it is the British endurance team horses which are ready to speed home over the highways of Europe under the care of Fred, 26, and his co-driver Richard Coates.
Fred, who has been ferrying the endurance team to international competitions since 1998, is justifiably proud of his charges and has phoned up several times during the event to check on their progress.
A gentle giant who weighs in at 19st, he winks as he walks past the miserable Russian, an hour on, who is now spinning his horse round on a lunge line with an even larger crowd around him.
There are two types of horse when it comes to travelling, says Fred. Nappy ones and those which are genuinely frightened. I dont mind spending as much time as you need with the ones who are frightened, but with the nappy ones you just need to get on with it. Some owners are too soft.
There are no such problems with the British horses who are soon on their way across Italy and France, with two stopovers, at an old estate outside Milan and next day, after a smooth run over the Alps, at a riding stable in the centre of Dijon.
At each stop, once the horses are bedded down, Fred, who is something of a foodie, directs the crew to his favourite local watering holes. In Milan, the yard owner, a friend, hands over the keys to his Mercedes for a quick trip into town, where a seafood platter is on the menu.
A jovial traveller with a sense of humour, Fred is well-known and respected on the trucking circuit as someone with far more wisdom and experience than his years.
And he radiates enthusiasm for a life he has known since his first trip to Belgium with his father at the age of eight. His parents John and Jackie first operated a dealing yard from their base at Hythe, Kent, but the transport gradually took over and they now operate four lorries and will add a fifth to the fleet.
Each week, crews head out to Spain and Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe with forays further afield to Cyprus, the USA and even the Caribbean.
You really need an overpowered engine in this job for the sort of miles we do, says Fred. It is the same as buying a Fiesta or a Mercedes. They both do the same job but one will last longer. You need an engine that is man enough for the job to be able to keep up the same speed whether you are going over mountain passes or down valleys.
His advice on driving with horses on board is simple. Slow right down on bends and dont worry about the drivers behind who sit on your bumper.
The quality of the air suspension on board the lorry is such that a water bucket filled up in the back, will not spill a drop. The body is designed for convenience, with storage under the stalls, room for 400 litres of water and a 1,000 litres of diesel. An insulated roof stops the lorry getting too hot, while three big fans either circulate or suck in fresh air.
Clients choose how much protection they want their horses to wear but the interior walls are well padded to prevent injury.
A fan of the open roads of Spain rather than the congested routes through the low countries and Germany, one of Freds favourite trips is the annual 15-day summer voyage to Barbados on a banana boat. This has carried a variety of equine cargo, from racehorses to polo ponies and dressage stars.
We hire a shipping container that is converted into stables with a storeroom and big barn doors you can open up to get a really good breeze.
Fred was the Parkers guinea pig on the first such trip from Southampton to Le Havre, St Kitts, St Lucia, Guadaloupe, Dominica and Barbados. He packed a book and plenty of sun-screen, but this was no luxury cruise.
"It was just me and 20 Filipino crew. I lost a lot of weight because they eat fish and rice the whole time. As soon as we got to the islands, they would anchor up and then go fishing off the deck. I thought I'd never want to touch another grain of rice again.
"Horse management on board proved initially quite taxing. The ship was immaculate, with the decks kept well-scrubbed and for the first few days I didnt really know the ropes. We were doing speeds of 20 knots and when I was mucking out and chucking the shavings over the side, it was all blowing back at me on to the deck. So I was sweeping away like a maniac trying to keep it clean and tidy as the rest of the ship. On the third day the captain took pity on me. He looked out at me from the bridge and signalled to press a button that sent jets of water flooding across to clean the deck down. From that moment on, it was a piece of cake."
While never a keen rider, Fred is a natural horseman, with a laid-back but highly professional attitude. It is an approach that wins him friends, both equine and human, with only rare glitches.
"Often on trips to Portugal we'll be loading horses which have just come wild off the mountains and have never had a headcollar on. By the time we get them home they are completely used to being handled and will load and unload easily."
Problem loaders are taken on and off three of four times to get them used to the idea. Fred bears the scars of some dangerous encounters and carries nine pins pins in his arm and a 14in scar. Once, girlfriend Wendy, a fellow driver, came to the rescue when she was at the wheel and watching the cab's CCTV system as Fred was pinned to the wall. "We'd just loaded an eventer and gone a little way when we could see on the CCTV that it was playing up. I went to sort it out but it just ran to the back of the stall and launched itself at me, leaping right over the front and landing on top of me. Wendy pulled up and I crawled out of the grooms door.
"We never mind if a horse is going to be a problem as long as the owners tell us and then we can give it a little extra space. With this job, the success lies in planning every aspect. But, if anything goes wrong, you can always call back to the office and get things sorted out. There's always back-up."
A stickler for routine and not cutting corners, Fred is mildly critical of owners who try to scrimp by sending grooms on trips without enough experience. "We fly horses regularly and have freelance grooms who know what they are doing. There was one horse which flew out to the States with us without a problem but on the flight home with its normal groom, it panicked and got the plane to turn around."
Problems in the air are common - pilots not used to horses will elect to go back to base, leading to heavy costs for the dumping of fuel, landing tax and fresh crew.
But the life is addictive. One journalist who accompanied the John Parker team on a trip was so impressed that he signed up for work. According to Fred, it is not the joys of the open road, the ever-changing scenery or great food that make this an enviable job. It is all down to the people he meets.
He says that while he enjoys the camaraderie of the trucking community, the horse world is something else.
"When you turn up with their horse in good condition at the end of a trip, people are always pleased to see you. In this business, the customers become friends. I could never see myself just shipping freight."
Horse and Hound 2002