Horses touch down in Sydney

The first major shipment of Olympic hopefuls arrived on Monday when a chartered jumbo jet carrying 45 horses touched down at Sydney Airport.

The precious consignment, valued at more than US$40 million, reached their destination safely after a 36-hour flight from Frankfurt which included refuelling stops in Dubai and Singapore.

The horses were immediately unloaded from the plane and inspected by a team of veterinary officers before being taken in trucks to the Olympic equestrian centre at Horsley Park in the city's western suburbs.

"All of the horses arrived in great condition. We're very pleased at how the operation went," Sydney's Olympic veterinary manager Nigel Nichols said.

"We did everything we could to look after them and we're pleased to say they all got here fine."

When Australia last held the Olympics, in Melbourne in 1956, the equestrian events were staged in Stockholm because the job of shipping the horses to the southern hemisphere was too dangerous.

A total of 237 horses will be flown to Australia at a total cost of US$15 million. They will arrive over the next week on five separate jumbo jets, four from Europe and one from the United States.

In compliance with Australia's strict quarantine regulations, each of the animals was required to spend at least two weeks in pre-quarantine stables before boarding their plane, and must have another fortnight in quarantine once they arrive in Sydney.

"This whole operation has been seven years in the planning," Ann McDonald of the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service said.

"We are lucky not to havbe a lot of equine diseases in Australia and we want to keep it that way."

The first shipment carried horses from 15 different countries including Belgium, Italy, Japan and Mexico.

The pilots were ordered to take extra care on take-off and landing, avoiding sudden movements and the use of reverse thrusts on touchdown.

"We expected about five per cent of the horses to develop some sort of minor respiratory problem on the flight but none of them did," Nichols said."They travelled very well."