Wetherbys Passport Ownership Query

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Violet555

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Unsure if this is the right place to post but will chance it anyway.

Based in Ireland and acquired an ex racehorse about a year ago off a trainer who is a friend of a friend. At the time of getting the horse I got his passport and nothing was said about change of ownership, but being unfamiliar with wetherbys and getting ex racehorses in general, I assumed ownership was as simple as having the passport and penciling my name into the owners list as the next entry 🙈 How wrong was I!!

I have since learned that ownership should be changed within 30 days with wetherbys or else you face a hefty (and I mean hefty…) fine. From talking to others it seems not a lot of people change ownership and haven’t had any trouble with this in terms of places requiring proof of ownership, but I would worry it may intervene with entering at certain shows…

Has anyone changed ownership past the 30 days and had no issues? Unsure what to do now because I don’t want to lie but I also don’t want the trainer (or me!) to face any repercussions for an honest mistake.
 
RoR might be worth a ring to ask (could be anonymous?) as two years ish ago they did a collaboration with Wetherbys where the fee for updating the passport was waived to try and encourage people to update the passports so they might know their stance on it.

I imagine they're probably just keen to be able to keep track of the horses outside of racing so I'd be surprised if they did impose a fine and I've never heard of it happening.

I've had my passport checked for certain shows and also for insurance claims.
 
Squeak said:
RoR might be worth a ring to ask (could be anonymous?) as two years ish ago they did a collaboration with Wetherbys where the fee for updating the passport was waived to try and encourage people to update the passports so they might know their stance on it.

I imagine they're probably just keen to be able to keep track of the horses outside of racing so I'd be surprised if they did impose a fine and I've never heard of it happening.

I've had my passport checked for certain shows and also for insurance claims.
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Totally agree to ring them and have a chat. Traceability of rehomed racehorses is a really big piece of work and important to the industry. As you’re in Ireland, they may well be more generous in their leeway because of different processes.
 
The fine has been in place since the Horse Passport Regulations came in in 2009 (and applies to all horses, not just racehorses). In all those years it hasn't been applied.

Just complete the change of ownership form and send it back with your passport to Weatherbys. No one will so much as blink.
 
Old info but I bought an ex racehorse 15 years ago. I didn’t immediately do change of ownership but when I got round to it, I’m sure it was over 6 months. I tried to get them to date it to the date I actually bought the horse but they put the date they received the firm. No repercussions
 
I've never changed the ownership and recently my insurance wanted proof of ownership for a claim! I also never got a receipt for my mare but thankfully I'm still in touch with the old owner, so I sent her a sales agreement over and she signed it! I didn't change hers because the passport is in german and I have no idea where to send it etc.

my shetland was gifted to me so again no proof of ownership for him either!
 
I took ages to change ownership after aquiring my TB. Purely because I just forgot. I think i had had him a year...they didn't question anything. i just sent everything off and less than a week later, got the passport back.
 
Has anyone ever actually been fined? (I'd suspect not)

Similarly you are supposed to send in the pass port of a deceased Weatherbys reg horse but I have all mine as does everyone else I know. You can and I have marked them as deceased on the ROR database.
 
I was given two TB’s earlier this year, aged 13 and 2. One was £1 and the other came with him and was free.

£1 horse was in training and raced, came to me after a holiday in the field after coming out of training, and the other was his field companion who was bred to race but was declared unfit after a serious field accident the previous year. I’ve never bothered to change ownership details with passport issuers before but I did with these two. Although unlikely ownership would ever be disputed, my gut feeling was to get the ownership above board just in case. Both have Wetherby’s passports, I was outside the 30 days, and nothing was mentioned. I even spoke to them on the phone a few times and they didn’t mention it.
 
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