Translation please!

[baymareb]

A few times on the board, I've seen horses described as being "nappy." What does that mean? I gather it's a behavioral issue but it's not a term I'm familiar with.

Also, what is being referred to when you speak of a horse's passport? Does it have to do with travel like a person's passport or does it refer to their registration papers? Something else?

Help an ignorant Yank out, will you?

 

[quirky]

Nappy - when the horse decides to turn for home/put the brakes on at the school gate for example or when going off the yard. Basically protesting at going where you want it to go.

Passport - It has a template of the horse (previously had them on vaccination card) and details of the dam and sire if known. Also pages for vaccinations and any (notifiable) medication given. Each horse has a unique passport number, issued by agents approved by DEFRA (Department for Environment Farming and Rural Affairs). This passport is supposed to stay with the horse when being travelled and indeed for life, ie. when sold transferred to new owner, returned to issuer upon death.
It is illegal to sell a horse without a passport, doing so can incur a fine, whether anybody has been successfully prosecuted for it, I don't know.

 

[baymareb]

Passport - It has a template of the horse (previously had them on vaccination card) and details of the dam and sire if known. Also pages for vaccinations and any (notifiable) medication given. Each horse has a unique passport number, issued by agents approved by DEFRA (Department for Environment Farming and Rural Affairs). This passport is supposed to stay with the horse when being travelled and indeed for life, ie. when sold transferred to new owner, returned to issuer upon death.
It is illegal to sell a horse without a passport, doing so can incur a fine, whether anybody has been successfully prosecuted for it, I don't know.

What a simple and brilliant idea! I wish we had something like that - it would be very useful for buying and selling, as well as probably cutting down on problems of horses ending up at auctions who would gladly be taken back by a previous owner if they only knew. I don't know if you find any drawback to the system but to me, it sounds like a very logical and good one.

 

[NeilM]

The theory of passports is sound, in practice it is all to easy to replace a 'lost' passport, which allows the unscrupulous to buy and sell horses giving them new identities along the way.

 

[sonjafoers]

I don't know if you find any drawback to the system but to me, it sounds like a very logical and good one.

Unfortunately although it sounds like a good system it's very open to abuse and isn't policed at all well - in fact there is plenty of opinion here that it's a total waste of time.

It's reasonably easy to get hold of fake blank ones if you know the right people, so unscrupulous dealers can sell any horse with fake ancestory. I have heard of someone who has bought horses in the last few years without passports and still not registered them, and seeing as they don;t have them vaccinated there is no way of anyone in authority finding out.

I also know of somebody who has a query on their horses passport & has been trying since February to get it resolved with no success.

So if there was a way of enforcing the legislation that has been brought in then it would be a great system, but as it stands it is pretty much useless!

 

[Dubsie]

I agree they're fairly useless at the moment, but with the new legislation that all foals have to be microchipped (was that from last July?), I can see that provided there's a central database, in about 10 years time passports will be a lot more useful in veryfying identity/ownership as the microchip will only be able to relate to a specific microchipped horse, and replacement passports won't be so easily issued.

 

[trakehnersrock!]

Here in Belgium the horse not only has to have a passport but also has to be microchipped, with the chip number to be featured in the passport. The passports can either be issued by the official stud book organisation of particular breeds or by a central organisation for horses without papers. Again these have to accompany the horse during transport, can be demanded for inspection at competitions,and used for vaccination records by vets etc. Chips and passports apply to all horses, regardless of age, and must also record whether the horse is in the food chain or not. Once declared out of the food chain, it can never be changed, although vice versa is possible!
Dogs also have to be chipped, and mine also has a proper pet passport.