Microchipping - yay or nay?

[rolsterlady]

After my tack room was recently burgled i'm feeling a lot more concious/worried about my horses safety! I'm considering microchipping them as they currently have no means of identification on them, but have heard stories of microchipping causing various problems.. what are your opinions on this? Is it likely?

What are my alternative options?

 

[Samantha008]

freezemarking or microchipping or both. A freezemark wil deter a thief more than a microchip, but a microchip will always allow the horse to be returned to you, should something swful happen.

Personally id say both

 

[MrsMozart]

Ours have both a microchip and a freezemark.

 

[magichorse]

Mine is microchipped had no problems at all with it. x

 

[Dubsie]

As all foals now have to be microchipped to get a passport, scanning of chips will become common place when horses are found/are vetted, passports reissued in new name etc, so I have microchipped both ours. Jury out on the freeze marking as our NF has some VERY distinctive markings casued by a too tight headcollar when he was a yearling, plus a completely unique marking on his rear left leg, and a lighter marking on his bum just like the lighter ring you'd get on a wooden table if someone left a coffee cup there! The other has also quite distinctive white marks due to a poorly fitting saddle at some point in his life and being an oldie I really wondered if it'd be fair to freezemark, so for now ours aren't done.

 

[Jorel]

My vet's said to me when we asked that they wouldn't recommend freezemarking anything that isnt very young as they remember what you do, whereas a microchip in comparison is pretty painless for the horse. All newly passported horses have to have microchips by law now anyway and the good vets always scan as they're all supposed to be in the same place.