#First-Class Treatment for U.S. Team’s Horses

/*title: 美国国家马术队的马享受头等待遇*/
Translator: Bee
Checker:

Tim Dutta has learned that satisfying his well-heeled clientele means attending to the smallest of details. One of his frequent fliers loves orange Gatorade, for example, but turns up his nose at lime. Another drinks water only if it has been sweetened with a touch of apple juice. Some ease their nerves by nibbling on wet hay, while others take it dry.

Tim Dutta已领悟到要让他的“马大人”满意就意味着注重每一个最小的细节。比方说，有一常客喜欢橙味的佳得乐，但它对柠檬却不屑一顾。另一位客户嗜甜，喝水时喜欢加点苹果汁。一些习惯慢慢咀嚼带水的干草来压惊；而另外一些则喜欢啃晒干的饲料。

“These are high-end athletes,” Dutta said. “And our main job is to make sure they are as stress-free as possible.”

Dutta表示，这些都是高级参赛选手，而他们的首要目标就是确保它们尽可能地不受惊吓。

His clients, of course, are not human but equine — Dutta is a shipping agent for the United States equestrian team, responsible for flying the team’s horses to Europe for the first leg of their trip to the 2008 Summer Olympics.

当然，他的这些客户都是马匹而不是人—Dutta本人是一名美国马术队的船运代理人，负责空运马术队的马到欧洲，开始他们征战2008夏季奥运会的征程。

After a seven-day quarantine in Britain or Germany, the horses will depart later this month and in early August for the equestrian site in Hong Kong as part of a global migration that will ultimately include 297 horses from 47 nations traveling on 57 airplanes.

在英国或德国停留一周的检疫期后，这些马将在七月底出发，八月初到达奥运会马术比赛场地—中国香港。这些马仅是这次全球性赛马赴赛的一部分。本次比赛最终将动用57架飞机，吸引来自47个国家的297匹马投入比赛。

With their superb training, million-dollar price tags and often excitable temperaments, many Olympic horses are celebrities in their own right. “They are rock stars,” Dutta said. “And we treat them like rock stars.”

这些奥运赛马训练有素，身价不斐，还常耍点脾气，它们中的许多凭着自己的能力都是明星马。Dutta 就表示：“它们是摇滚明星，就得下享受明星般的待遇。”

Martin Atock, who has shipped horses for every Olympics since the 1988 Seoul Games, has been planning for this summer’s Games since 2001 and has already made 16 trips to Hong Kong. “The trick to help them recover is you keep the whole transport as smooth and stress-free as possible,” said Atock, managing director of Peden Bloodstock, the German agency that is arranging the transport of every national team’s Olympic horses.

Martin Atock, 自1988年韩国首尔奥运会就开始为每一届奥运会运送马匹。他已飞往到香港16次，自2001年起就一直在准备本次奥运会。这位德国代理行Peden Bloodstock 的运营主管透露：“防止马匹受惊的经营之道就是保持全程旅途尽可能平稳、轻松。”他们一直为每一国家的奥运马术队提供运送赛马的服务。

Olympic riders say they cannot help but worry while their horses are in transit. Because horses and riders work together for years, if the animal becomes injured, the rider cannot simply find a new horse. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s daughter Georgina, for example, had to remove herself from contention for the Olympic team because her top horse, Cim Christo, injured his leg last fall.

奥运会马术骑手们表示马在运送途中时他们免不了要担心，因为骑手和赛马一般都合作多年，一旦马在途中受伤，骑手就很难找一匹新马来替代。例如，纽约市市长迈克尔·R·布隆伯格的女儿乔治娜不得不退出奥运会马术比赛的竞争，原因是她的爱将Cim Christo 在上个秋季中弄伤了腿。

“Traveling is one of the most stressful things a horse has to do,” said Beezie Madden, an American show jumper who competed on the gold-medal-winning United States jumping team in Athens in 2004. She competes with the 13-year-old Dutch-bred warmblood, Authentic. If a plane is delayed, “it can end up being a much longer experience than it needs to be,” she said.

Beezie Madden表示，对马来说开赴赛场的旅行是马最易受惊的一件事。她是美国马术障碍赛的骑手，曾在2004年雅典奥运会上为美国队效力，角逐障碍赛金牌。她和13岁的荷兰种温血马Authentic并肩作战。她表示道，飞机如果延误会导致一段比预期更长的旅途。

The horses fly with an entourage — team grooms, veterinarians and at least one “flying groom,” an equine flight attendant whose job is to make the horse as comfortable as possible. Tim Rolfe, the senior flying groom for Peden Bloodstock, said his job was as much about calming nervous handlers as about taking care of the horses. “Basically, this is really like a giant baby-sitting job,” he said.

这些马还有一批随从一起飞行—他们包括队中的马夫，兽医及至少一名“空中马夫”，也就是马的空中服务员，其工作是尽可能地让马感到舒适。Peden Bloodstock 代理行的一名高级空中马夫Tim Rolfe表示，他的工作包括两方面一是安慰焦虑不安的骑手，另一方面是照顾好马。正如他所说的“基本上就像一项艰巨的照看婴儿的工作”。

As with humans, a horse’s primary health concern during flight is dehydration, which explains why Dutta is so attentive to his clients’ drinking preferences — water sweetened with Gatorade and apple juice, for example.

和人类一样，飞行中一匹马的首要健康问题是脱水。这就解释了为何Dutta如此关注他要照管的马的饮水偏好—如有的马喜欢在水中加入佳得乐或是苹果汁。

Horses can also lose their balance, so cargo plane pilots use the full extent of the runway to make takeoff and landing as smooth as possible. Even air traffic controllers become involved, Atock said, approving a flight path devoid of sharp, unpredictable turns. “We take a very slow curve,” he said, “to let the horse anticipate the movement.”

马也容易晕机，因此货机飞行员会充分利用跑道，尽量平稳的实现起落。Atock表示，为了确保飞行路线中没有突如其来的急转弯，他们甚至用上了空中交通遥控器。他描述道：“我们仅做十分缓慢的转弯，给马充分的提前做好准备的时间。

The horse’s trip begins in a warehouse near the airport, where it is loaded into a container that resembles a standard horse trailer. From there, the animal is wheeled onto the tarmac and lifted into the belly of the cargo plane. Apart from wearing protective foam boots and, occasionally, ear muffs to block engine noise, the horse has an experience similar to riding in a trailer, Atock said.

这些马起先饲养在机场附近的仓库中，随后在那被装进一个类似于标准运马拖车的集装箱中，接着再车运上停机坪，升进货机机舱。除了给它们穿上保护性的泡沫靴子，有时候也让它们戴上护耳套以防飞机引擎噪音，正如Atock所说的“一段类似于在拖车中的旅行”。

Besides, most horses who will travel to the Olympics have already logged many thousands of miles in the air. Brentina, a 17-year-old mare who competes with the American dressage rider Debbie McDonald, travels to Europe at least twice a year. “She’s a pretty seasoned flier,” said McDonald, who competed in Athens in 2004 as part of the United States team that won a bronze medal.

除此之外，要参加奥运会的大多数赛马都已预先乘过多次飞机了。美国盛装舞步骑手Debbi McDonald的17岁爱将Brentina是一匹母马，每年飞去欧洲至少要两次。McDonald 透露这匹母马已是一位很有经验的乘客了。McDonald是2004年雅典奥运会上美国国家马术队成员，并取得了第三名的成绩。

The United States plans to send four show jumpers, three dressage horses and five eventing horses to the Olympics, in addition to two alternates in show jumping and dressage, said James Wolf, executive director for sport programs for the United States Equestrian Federation, the sport’s national governing body.

据美国国家马术管理机构国家马术联盟比赛项目执行主管James Wolf介绍，美国队计划派出四匹障碍赛赛马，三匹盛装舞步赛马和五匹三日赛赛马，外加两匹障碍赛和盛装舞步替补赛马参加本次奥运会。

Because of differences in their competition schedules, the horses will travel to Hong Kong separately. Eventing horses will leave from Stansted Airport outside London on July 30. The dressage horses will leave the same date, from Amsterdam. The show jumping horses leave last, on Aug. 6.

考虑到比赛日程安排的不同，这些马将分批运往香港。如三日赛赛马将于7月30号从伦敦城外的斯坦斯特德机场出发；盛装舞步赛马将于同一天从阿姆斯特丹机场起程；而障碍赛赛马殿后，将于8月6号开赴赛场。

Once in Hong Kong, the horses will be transferred to air-conditioned trucks — the temperature set at 73 degrees — for the 30-mile trip to the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the site of the equestrian events. During a test event last summer, Atock clocked the journey from the tarmac to the stables at 1 hour 40 minutes.

一到香港，这些马将被转入空调卡车—恒温华氏73度—经过30英里的路程到达马术比赛场地香港赛马会。在上年夏季的一次测试赛中，Atock特意计了下时，从停机坪到马厩要花时1小时40分钟。

By that time, humans are “basically still collecting your luggage at the passenger terminal,” Atock said. “We’re already in the stables.”

那个时候，正如Atock所说的“旅客们基本上还在乘客通道收拾各自的行李，而马却已在马厩里休息了”。