Air Horse One returns
<p>Sarah Broussard Kelly points as several others try to calm a frantic horse in a trailer on the tarmac at Glacier Park International Airport Tuesday morning.</p>
<p>Horses wait to be unloaded from a Boeing 727 at the Glacier Jet Center at Glacier Park International Airport Tuesday morning.</p>
<p>Six people hold a banner on the tarmac Tuesday at Glacier Park International Airport to greet a Boeing 727 dubbed Air Horse One. The jet carried 19 horses and 13 riders. The Event at Rebecca Farm starts Thursday.</p>
"The Plane, The Plane," said Sarah Broussard Kelly happily as she pointed to a tiny white speck high above the mountains and framed by a blue Montana sky.
"I think that's it."
Shortly thereafter, a 727 gently touched down at Glacier Park International Airport on Tuesday carrying a very special and valuable payload.
Nineteen horses were escorted one-by-one down a ramp off the shiny aircraft at 11:47 a.m.
The horses, who will compete in The Event at Rebecca Farm this week, were then carefully loaded into horse trailers and whisked away, along with the 13 riders who flew in, for the short trip to the place they will call home for the four-day competition.
"The first year something happens it's always pretty special," Broussard Kelly, The Event organizer, said of the fly in.
"It's still as exciting and as wonderful (the second time around)."
Last year marked the first year a large contingent of horses and riders flew in from the East Coast to participate in The Event.
"I had to do a lot of arm twisting," Broussard Kelly said of getting riders from the East Coast to compete here in 2010.
That wasn't necessary this time. Broussard Kelly said the potential list of horses to be flown to the Flathead Valley this time was as high 28.
The 727 - First Class Equine Air Travel - is based in Lexington, Ky. The Professional Riders Association chartered the H.E. Tex Sutton Forwarding Company, LLC jet for this trip.
The 727, called Air Horse One, can carry 21 horses and 15 passengers.
The flight originated in Baltimore at 7:30 a.m. There was one stop in Minneapolis.
Riders making the trip, according to The Event press release, were Carl Bouckaert, Buck Davidson, Phillip Dutton, Heather Gillette, Ronald Zabala-Goetschel, Sara Kozumplik, Juan Andres Larrazabal, Karen O'Connor, Jessica Phoenix, Kristin Schmolze, Allison Springer, Lucia Strini and Sharon L. White.
O'Connor, a three-time Olympian and last year's overall HSBC FEI World Cup winner at The Event, had a good showing last week in Maryland.
"Couple wins, I was really thrilled," she said.
She's also happy to be back in Big Sky Country.
"I love it," she said while walking another competitor's horse before it was loaded in a horse trailer.
O'Connor will be competing on Veronica this week, a horse owned by Jerome and Broussard Kelly.
"But one thing is missing this year ... Becky," said O'Connor.
"It's a big deal. We all miss her terribly."
Rebecca Chaney Broussard, The Event founder, died last December after a battle with cancer. "Becky" was nationally known for her love and support of eventing.
This year's field has a record 503 competitors as The Event celebrates a 10th anniversary.
Competition begins Thursday with dressage and concludes on Sunday with show jumping.
Visit www.rebeccafarm.org for more information.