Is your Horse Microchipped?
Revised October 2020
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New legislation means that all
horses, ponies, donkeys and
mules in Great Britain need
to be microchipped.
Failure to comply is an offence
and could result in a fine.
Benefits of having your horse microchipped
Once your horse is microchipped, update your Passport
Issuing Organisation (PIO) with the microchip number and
they will upload the data to the Central Equine Database.
By using the Central Equine Database you can:
- Check your horse’s passport details using the
National ChipChecker
- Quickly report your horse missing
- Check if a horse is legally for sale
- Additionally, in Scotland you can register your horse with ScotEquine. The Scottish Database puts horses and ponies on the map and tracks thier moves in Scotland only
Deadline for having your horse microchipped
The deadline will vary according to what part of the country you’re in.
Ensure your horse is microchipped before the relevant deadline listed below:
- England - 1 October 2020
- Wales - 12 February 2021
- Scotland - 28 March 2021
We would recommend that horse owners make sure their microchip is registered on a Defra compliant database (list of them here).
That way, anyone trying to contact an owner about their horse, such as a rescue organisation or even the police, would be able to search the Check-A-Chip website and be able to find out which microchip database has the owner’s details and then contact them.
All Defra compliant databases have an integration tool which allows them to search where a chip is registered and are required by law to operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.