The missing link

Your horse may be microchipped, but have you let the paperwork lapse? A new law requires the process to be complete, discovers Andrea Oakes

- Andrea Oakes

AS of October 2020, new legislation requires that all horses, ponies and donkeys in England must be microchipped.

While the organised owner may feel that they’ve already ticked this box, a surprising number of equines are not fully protected by this affordable identity safeguard.

“Almost half of the horses on the central equine database (CED) are not linked to a microchip – either because they haven’t had a chip implanted or because the chip has not been registered with, or by, the horse’s passport-issuing organisation (PIO),” says David Mountford of the British Horse Council, referring to findings presented at the National Equine Forum in March.

“Even among conscientious owners, a high proportion of the records provided to the database by the PIOs contained errors or were out of date.”

Weaknesses in the old system may have been to blame, but experts agree that chipping can only be effective if we join the links in the chain.

“The ability to connect every horse, via his microchip, to a record on the CED and thereby to his last registered owner, has fantastic health and welfare implications,” says David.

POSITIVE STEPS

ACCORDING to Jo Burnett MRCVS of Valley Equine Hospital, microchipping provides a definitive means of identification in a number of scenarios.

“Every chip has a unique code that can be scanned by a hand-held reader,” she says. “Being able to prove that a horse is what he is said to be ensures full transparency during a sale, can help solve ownership disputes and increases the chance of being reunited with an animal after straying or theft.

“There are implications for competition, with anti-doping regulations, and for medication control for horses entering the food chain,” adds Jo.