Horse passports and identification.

This page describes what the rules require, not how any step is carried out. Questions about microchipping, vaccination or medication for an individual horse are for a vet, and the issuing organisation or national federation is the authority on any individual horse's documents.

FEI registration and passports

Equestrian Sports New Zealand (ESNZ) sets out the FEI's requirements as they apply to its members:

• All athletes and horses must be registered with the FEI each year to compete at an FEI event, with registration running from 1 January to 31 December. A search summary attributes this to FEI General Regulations Art 113; we could not confirm the article number.
• Horses newly registered with the FEI from 1 January 2013 must be microchipped, and from 1 January 2017 a newly registered horse must first have a national passport (ESNZ, citing GRs Art 137).
• FEI passports, and FEI Recognition Cards issued on top of an FEI-approved national passport, are issued by national federations and must be revalidated every four years. National passports themselves do not need revalidation.
• Every FEI-registered horse must keep an FEI Medication Treatment Logbook, which ESNZ states as an FEI rule.

From 1 January 2026, FEI Veterinary Regulations Art 1002.5 requires all vaccination information in a horse's passport to be written in the Roman alphabet, with dates as Day/Month/Year (US Equestrian's outline of the 2026 FEI rule changes).

When an FEI passport is needed

Federations publish their own thresholds for when a horse needs an FEI passport or Recognition Card rather than registration alone:

For jumping the two agree in effect (from 3*, or above 2*). Together they show that each federation publishes its own threshold.

United Kingdom: the law

The British Horse Society (BHS) says every horse, pony, donkey, mule and zebra in the UK must have an equine passport, even if it never leaves its field. The law is set separately for each nation: the Equine Identification (England) Regulations 2018, the Equine Animal Identification (Scotland) Regulations 2019, the Equine Identification (Wales) Regulations 2019 and the Equine Identification Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2019.

The England regulations (SI 2018/761) revoke the Horse Passports Regulations 2009 (regulation 50) and cover identification, identification documents, transponders and databases, as the text on legislation.gov.uk shows. Search summaries of legal commentary say they came into force on 1 October 2018 and that only a veterinary surgeon may implant an equine microchip under them; we could not open those pages, so both points are unconfirmed.

Microchips

• England: microchipping became mandatory for all horses, ponies and donkeys on 1 October 2020 (Defra, gov.uk, 27 July 2020).
• Wales and Scotland: requirements followed in spring 2021, according to a search summary of a council leaflet (unconfirmed).
• Northern Ireland: DAERA says equines born on or after 1 July 2009 must be microchipped, while those born earlier need a chip only before moving to an establishment for more than 30 days.
• All new UK passports since 1 July 2009: the BHS says new and replacement passport applications have included mandatory microchipping, and freeze branding is not an accepted alternative.

The Central Equine Database

The Central Equine Database, with its National ChipChecker, is run by Equine Register for Defra. The BHS, in an undated FAQ read in October 2026, says it holds over 1.2 million equine records and that there are 81 UK Passport Issuing Organisations. The government's 2020 notice says owners must keep their details current on the database, which they reach through the Digital Stable, and that local authorities and police can use it to trace the owners of abandoned animals.

Foals: when the passport is due

The deadlines are stated differently by different bodies:

• The BHS says a foal must have a passport and microchip within six months of birth or by 30 November of its birth year, whichever is later, and that a horse over 12 months old can only get a replacement passport.
• Welsh Government guidance from 2020, seen only in a search summary, gives 1 December of the birth year as the alternative date.
• DAERA in Northern Ireland says an application should be made within six months, with a passport held within 12 months of birth.

Rules the BHS sets out for passport holders

• A passport must accompany the horse at all times, including when stabled or moved, with an exception for emergency veterinary transport.
• A horse must be sold with its passport, and the new owner must notify the issuing organisation within 30 days.
• A passport is a means of identification, not proof of ownership.
• A foreign passport must be registered (overstamped) with a UK issuing organisation within 30 days of a horse arriving for 90 days or more.
• A passport must be returned within 30 days of a horse's death.
• A passport records whether the horse may enter the human food chain, and certain medications require the owner to notify the issuing organisation within 14 days. Which medications, and what they mean for a horse, is a question for a vet.

European Union

Search summaries describe Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2021/963, adopted on 10 June 2021 under the Animal Health Law (Regulation (EU) 2016/429), as setting identification and registration rules for equines and model identification documents. A Bavarian government portal is reported to say it has applied since 7 July 2021 and that earlier passports remain valid. In Ireland, a parliamentary answer of 13 July 2023 is reported to say an equine must be identified with a passport within 12 months of birth, and that Ireland gave effect to the regulation through S.I. 254 of 2023. We could not open these pages, so the EU and Irish details are unconfirmed.

United States: US Equestrian's microchip rule

US Equestrian's equine microchipping page says GR 1101.10 requires every horse competing at USEF-licensed or endorsed competitions to be microchipped with a 15-digit ISO 11784/11785 chip from 1 December 2026. As of 21 October 2026 that rule is not yet in force for all disciplines. Hunter/jumper microchip requirements under EQ103, HU104 and JP100 are already in effect.

The start date has moved. US Eventing's April 2024 rule refresher, an edited US Equestrian release, gave 1 December 2025 under GR 1101.1, with the rule approved by the USEF Board on 20 June 2023. US Equestrian's current page gives 1 December 2026 under GR 1101.10. We did not find the reason for the change.

US Eventing says the rule places the chip in the nuchal ligament, and that state and federal animal health officials may scan chips at competitions during disease outbreaks. Named horse diseases, as veterinary bodies describe them, are covered on the horse health page.