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This is how you fly 69 horses from Limburg to Kuwait

The Netherlands is a popular holiday destination. Not only for tourists from all over the world, but also for horses. And especially from the Gulf region. It is often so hot there that the horses are flown to the Netherlands to enjoy the colder weather.

The Dutch Middle East correspondent Olaf Koens flew with Horse Flight Operations and 69 horses from Maastricht Aachen Airport to Kuwait. (Dutch)

Arrival plane with 53 horses from Kuwait

A special transport at Maastricht Aachen Airport. Not an airplane full of tourists, but 53 horses arrive in Limburg. The horses have had a five hour flight from Kuwait. During the summer a part of them stay at Stal Peters in Maria Hoop. The horses visit Limburg to be used from here throughout the Netherlands and abroad for show jumping and breeding. (Dutch)

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Horses fly business class
Stories about humans and animals in the Middle East

Can storks be mistaken for spies? How do you evacuate a war zone zoo? And how do you put 69 horses on a plane?

In the book 'Horses fly business class', Olaf Koens sketches in thirteen remarkable stories a world of humans and animals in the Middle East. A world that people in the west have little idea of.

Among other things, he follows Martijn Peters and Nicole Caris of Horse Flight Operations who provides a flight of 69 horses from the Netherlands to Kuwait. He delves into the storie, follows the route the animals take and looks up the people who can tell him first-hand what and why this happens. (Dutch)

Limburg as the Golden Triangle in the horse world

Distinguished visitors from Kuwait. Flight MB603, which landed at Maastricht Aachen Airport on Wednesday, had a very special "passenger list". Then the names of 53 top horses, who will be heading to the tournaments partly from Stal Peters in Maria Hoop in the coming months.

The economy of equestrian sports in Limburg is "booming".... 

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Click on the photo to read the article in English →

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