Microchipping
Compulsory microchipping of foals was introduced from 1st July 2009 and now, from 1st October 2020, all horses and donkeys will be required to be microchipped.
This means that if your horse was born after 1st July 2009, it should already have a microchip.
This number should be written somewhere in your horse’s passport, not to be confused with the life number, and the sketch of your horse should have an M with a circle around it on the neck. If you are at all unsure if your horse has a microchip, any of our vets can scan your horse to check.
If your horse does not have a microchip it is a very simple, quick procedure. Our vets will scan the horse’s neck on both sides to double check that no microchip is present and will then implant a microchip into the left-hand side of the neck.
Afterwards, we will put the new microchip details into your horse’s passport and ask you to fill out a short form, allowing us to update the microchip database.
It is then your responsibility to inform the organisation that issued your horse’s passport that your horse has now been chipped so that they can update their records.
They may ask you to fill out a form and sometimes this involves a signature from the vets. If this is the case, please feel free to send these to us and our vets will be very happy to fill in the required section.