Horse passports

• Passport application form
• Replacement passport application form
• Change of ownership form
• Change of address
• Duplicate form
• Overstamp form
• Passport update form
• Legal responsibilities
• Guidance instructions

If you have a horse under the age of 12 months that has not previously been issued a passport, you can apply for a new passport.

DEFRA states that the application should be submitted to a PIO before the horse reaches 6 months of age or before 30^th November in the year they were born, whichever occurs later.

Even if you submit your application after this date, if it is submitted and the PIO processes it before the horse reaches 12 months of age, it will be processed as a new passport.

If you submit your application after the horse reaches 12 months of age, you will be issued a replacement passport.

If you have a horse over the age of 12 months that has not previously been issued a passport, a replacement passport will need to be issued. This is a passport that automatically signs a horse out of the human food chain having surpassed one year of age with no record of medicines administered to it.

If you have lost your horse’s passport, or it has been stolen, you will need to apply for a duplicate passport.

Duplicate passports can only be produced by the Passport Issuing Organisation that issued the original version. If you cannot remember who issued the passport, you can find this out by typing your horse’s microchip number into the Equine Register ChipChecker.

• Passport applications cost £25.
• For registered charities, passport applications cost £15
• All passports are sent out by recorded delivery (Signed For™) at no additional cost.

Upon receipt of the application form, the BHS will issue your horse's passport within 15 working days.

It is a legal requirement that horses are microchipped and the number will be needed for a passport application. The microchipping of horses is classified as an act of veterinary surgery; therefore, microchips must only be implanted by a veterinary surgeon. This differs from other species because horse microchips must be implanted into the nuchal ligament rather than simply under the skin. This is to ensure that the microchip does not move around the body and can be easily located for scanning purposes. 

The vet must first check the horse for an existing microchip and any evidence that a microchip has been removed prior to the implantation. Further details are available from the RCVS. 

To check a microchip, visit the Equine Register.   

When names have more than one word, for example ‘Leamington Flyer’, they will need to be checked on the Central Prefix Register. Owners have the ability to register their own unique prefix, which is often used when breeding horses. If your horse’s name is already registered, then we won’t be able to use it - and any name that is regarded as being offensive will be rejected.

• Please note that we can only process applications that are submitted with completed and correct paperwork.  
• The BHS cannot accept application forms from any other organisation and such paperwork will not be processed and will be returned to the sender. 
• It is an offence to apply for a new passport when one already exists for the horse.  
• If your horse’s application form is received outside of the statutory time limit, your passport must be produced as a replacement and Section IX Part II (or Section II Part II for passports issued from 1 January 2016) will be signed by a BHS representative to declare the horse is not intended for human consumption. 
• The BHS cannot be held responsible for any passports that are lost or damaged in the post. 
• Please note if you send in an incomplete application or a passport without a covering note we will attempt to contact you to request the supporting documentation or payment up to a period of six months. If we have not received the additional paperwork/payment from you within that time we will destroy any documentation already received in order to comply with GDPR. 
• The BHS is only able to make changes to passports that were originally issued by the British Horse Society.  
• You do not have to be a member of the BHS to obtain a passport or to complete any updates on a BHS passport.

If your horse is now permanently residing in the UK, but holds a foreign passport, this passport will need to be submitted to a UK passport issuing organisation to be ‘over stamped’.

This means that the horse’s information is entered into the UK Central Equine Database, and the UK PIO takes authority of the horse’s UELN (passport number) issued by the original PIO. This must be done within 30 days of the horse arriving in the UK.

The BHS can only over stamp passports issued with no breeding recorded (no parentage/DNA testing), as we are an ID only Passport Issuing Organisation.

If your horse has been signed out of the food chain (no longer eligible to be sold for meat), the registered owner is required by law to update the PIO if the status has changed since the passport was issued. The PIO will require a photo of the passport page, stamped by a vet.

If your horse has been castrated since the passport was issued, this will need to be confirmed by a vet and requires the passport to be sent to the PIO along with a completed passport update form.

If your horse has been microchipped since the passport was issued, this update will need to be confirmed by a vet and requires a completed passport update form to be sent to the PIO. 

In the sad event of the death of your horse, the passport must be returned to the PIO within 30 days.  

For a BHS passport, please return it to our Passport Office with a covering letter detailing the date and cause of death. If you would like your horse’s passport to be returned, please reference this in your letter and include a stamped addressed envelope.