MY name is David McMahon, or Bono to a lot of people in the horse racing industry. I have worked with horses for over 25 years and, since 2017, have worked full-time as a flying groom. Ann Munnelly of Brideschurch Bloodstock introduced me to flying, and I still work closely with her today. Similar to many of my colleagues, I am self-employed and contract work from shippers all around the world. The majority of my work includes shipping horses from Europe to the US and shorter day trips to races in Europe for Ballydoyle and other Irish trainers on big Group 1 race days.

Predominantly, the US is the busiest route for Irish horses, but as there is only one scheduled freight service out of Ireland that horses can travel on, it is actually cheaper to truck out to Liege, Frankfurt or Amsterdam to ship your horse to the US. Usually, mainland European grooms are used to keep costs down. All other flights from Ireland would be chartered aircraft, which is where things can get very expensive!