Every year thousands of horses are born in the United Kingdom and for many of us the threat of theft or fraud is a real concern.

Following European Commission legislation, all horses, ponies, donkeys and mules in the UK will need to have a passport by 30th June 2004. Horse owners must present an equine passport whenever their horse(s) moves premises, is used for breeding, enters a competition, leaves the UK, is sold, or if presented for slaughter.

Although this is a welcome decision, many will wonder if there is enough information recorded on the passport system. Marking down colour, sex, markings, scars and age is not proof that that horse belongs to you and the physical description can match any number of horses. If you are in a situation where you need to prove ownership, more than a passport is needed.

There are many reasons why we need positive identification; prevention of theft, disease control, parentage verification, involuntary slaughter, theft and fraud prevention at events, auctions, races, breeding and registration and of course insurance. (Some insurance companies will reduce premiums if the horse has some form of permanent marking or micro-chipping). The identity of a horse should be established as soon as possible after birthing and it is best to use a method that lasts for the entire lifetime.

Unfortunately many thieves and fraudsters will go to great extremes to change or hide a marked horse's identity. The one method that is totally unalterable is blood typing and DNA testing, but due to cost and time involvement for many it is not be a practical method. If you think that your horse has been found it can take a long period of time to verify the results. Different breed registries have different rules, some require that your horse be blood typed and filed with the registry, and some require DNA testing which comes at a higher cost.

Branding comes in three forms; hot or cold (freeze branding) and hoof. Branding with a hot iron, one of the oldest methods used over centuries, leaves a permanent scar with no hair re-growth. Warmbloods and other breeds from Europe, and some native breeds have their own distinct brand plus an identification mark for ownership. Another form is ownership branding, more commonly practised in the U.S.A. and Australia. An owner will register a particular brand in their name. This is designed to protect the ownership, which is considered as a property right. There are rules for transfer and renewal depending on the registry.

Freeze branding is one of the more popular methods used in the United Kingdom. It involves placing a super frozen iron on a clipped area on the body of the horse. This kills the colour pigment in the hair and it subsequently grows back white leaving a clear mark. If the horse is light coloured the iron is left on longer resulting in leaving a permanently hairless mark. Keeping the area regularly clipped shows the brand clearly, as long hair can make it hard to see and read. This form of branding can be fairly easy to tamper with and disguise.

Hoof branding identifies a particular horse to a certain address. There are two irons used in this process marked with the postcode of the owner. The area code is marked on the left hoof and the local code on the right, so when facing the horse the full code can be read. The process is done by the farrier and needs to be repeated approximately three times annually. This is only a relatively short term deterrent.

It is believed that coloured horses have no markings exactly the same, rather like zebra stripes. So the term signalment is applied to identifying horses through their markings. This is by far the oldest method of identification and the most common. Passport and other formal identification documents require all markings, colours, scars, whorls and anything peculiar or distinctive mark to be recorded.

There is a major draw back with this method as there isn't a stead fast set of terms that apply to every colour and marking on any one horse. When do a star, strip and snip become a blaze? Not every dun has the 'MUST' have dorsal stripe, therefore what colour is it? If there is no pink skin under white hair on your horse it is said to be a faint white marking and that is very easy to cover with hair dye. Dark horses can have white markings added by freeze branding, although this is detectable as the underlying skin will not be pink, from a distance it is a good disguise.

Tattooing is a popular method in the thoroughbred community, especially in the U.S.A., but is widely used throughout Europe on all breeds of horses. This process is not recommended on horses under the age of 2 years because of growth dilution and the absorption of the ink. The immune system sweeps the ink to the lymph nodes, so by the time the horse is 2 years old the true identity can be long gone.

On older horses the tattoo can fade after approximately 4-5 years. Tattoos' are easily altered, hard to read on pigmented lips and can be removed, it has even been suggested that they can be temporarily hidden by injecting certain substances into the tattooed area!

It is not uncommon for horses to experience colour changes from season to season, so it is recommended that photographs be taken both in the summer and the winter months from all angles, taking care to pay particular attention a any new scar or mark and report them to the registry if they were made after the identification forms were filled in. These recorded forms are used by the Jockey Club, FEI and other associations within passports and vaccination certificates, pre-purchase reports and insurance documents.

Micro-chipping provides a permanent, inexpensive form of identification that cannot be lost or altered. It is a system that should be used more and more. Not only just on equine, but all pets. They are about the size of a grain of rice and are injected subcutaneously (under the skin) by your veterinarian using a specially adapted wide bore needle. Each microchip has a unique identification number that is never duplicated. It has no power source and has a special cap to prevent internal movement once implanted. To read the data on the chip a special scanner is passed over the area which sends out a magnetic field to read the unique code imprinted on the chip. Via a computer database the owner's personal details are identified.

No matter what system of identification, and there are many, we choose to protect our equine from the thieves and fraudsters out there, the fact still remains very clear. We must try to stamp out this act of cruelty and have severe punishments for those who get caught. It seems that in the modern world of today nothing is sacred anymore. Others want what we have and will go to incredible extremes to get it. We hear of single horse thefts and even the clearings of entire fields. Most thefts seem to be well organised, as horse thieves tend not to be opportunists. They know what they're looking for, how to get and how to dispose of it. Most are not particularly skilled as thieves, far from it.

They simply rely on you to make it easy for them.

Published: 30/07/2004