What’s the point of a passport?

My vets check that they've been signed out when they visit.

The transporters I use check I've got it but none have actually looked at it - I did grab the wrong one once but as both were 16 2 Bay tbs, you'd need someone knowledgeable to spot it.

Since the flu thing local venues are checking vaccination records so it's been checked more in the last 6 months than the previous 10 years.
 
criso said:
My vets check that they've been signed out when they visit.

The transporters I use check I've got it but none have actually looked at it - I did grab the wrong one once but as both were 16 2 Bay tbs, you'd need someone knowledgeable to spot it.

Since the flu thing local venues are checking vaccination records so it's been checked more in the last 6 months than the previous 10 years.
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Yeah the current owners asked me if he had his vaccs and since he has they’re going to have to contact his vet and see if they can get his vet records. Apart from that they didn’t seem bothered about the fact that didnt have a passport.
 
rallan15 said:
This makes sense - the owners have been told the horse is 7 even though he’s 6 (he’ll be 7 in October) even though I don’t understand why they lied about that to be honest. It’s a slightly strange situation...
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Thats not lying. A horses birthday is always taken as Jan 1 for TBs and March 1 for others, even if his actual birth date is later in the year.
 
I bought one without a passport (it was promised but never materialised). Went to the effort and expense of getting the vet out to chip and do the paperwork, but he didn't do the diagram properly so passport issuer rejected it. Damned if I'm paying the vet to come out again, so if I have to present a passport I will present one for a different pony (2 hands shorter and a different breed and colour) - I can't see that being a problem, since police, VOSA, RSPCA etc seem to be unable to tell a shire horse from a spotty donkey.
 
criso said:
Since the flu thing local venues are checking vaccination records so it's been checked more in the last 6 months than the previous 10 years.
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But.... every time I've presented a passport for checking this year, the flu section has been checked - but not the rest of the passport, not even the ruddy front where equine name is.

Just for 'fun' I presented one of my mini ponies passports at a large venue a month ago for unaff dressage, it was checked and handed back to me with a smile, they ticked their form and i was told all ok.
I then produced the correct passport - saying I'd made a "mistake" - the checker (a vet!) then got rather puce faced & I understand more due diligence was given to the whole passport for everyone after that!

That said, no chips are being checked at any unaff or even affiliated venues, only once i know of locally and that was back in Feb for BS when we didn't have any flu notifications in this area.
 
In all the horse world of certainly the northern hemisphere, a horse has its 'birthday' on 1st January irrespective of when it was actually born. It does not matter whether it is a TB, a sport horse a pony or whatever. In the very dim and distant past there were different dates for TB and non TB but that has not applied for decades.

Imagine the chaos of a 5 year old class when suddenly half way through the year the horses became 6 years old!! You can choose to use whatever date you want to for your personal interest but if you sell a horse you must advertise it with its age calculated with a 1st January birth date. Anything else is misrepresentation.
 
I think the horses actual birthdate does make a huge difference when they are young. A June foal is far different from one born at the begining of the year even up to the age of 3/4, and if its not been 'done' well a bit of extra food could give it an extra inch or two.
I have an old pony who has been around with his origanal passport, its really interesting to see where he has been from the vet stamps, often with no change of ownership.
 
They do seem pretty limited really but are now more important only for the flu check. Most places just check the jabs are in date but one did verify it against the horse. But as he’s grey with no markings it proved a bit tricky!
 
The Fuzzy Furry said:
But.... every time I've presented a passport for checking this year, the flu section has been checked - but not the rest of the passport, not even the ruddy front where equine name is.

Just for 'fun' I presented one of my mini ponies passports at a large venue a month ago for unaff dressage, it was checked and handed back to me with a smile, they ticked their form and i was told all ok.
I then produced the correct passport - saying I'd made a "mistake" - the checker (a vet!) then got rather puce faced & I understand more due diligence was given to the whole passport for everyone after that!

That said, no chips are being checked at any unaff or even affiliated venues, only once i know of locally and that was back in Feb for BS when we didn't have any flu notifications in this area.
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Well done 👍
 
Report the issue to trading Standards it is an offence to posses a horse without a passport,it is an offence not to hand over a horse whitout a passport and the seller needs to be looked into as what other fraud are they doing.
 
Abi90 said:
It’s nothing to do with whether their birthday is known or not. It’s just standard to say he’s 7 if he is 7 at any point this year, whether it’s on the passport or not
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Traditionally non-TBs were always said to have their birthday on 1st May.That seems to have gone by the wayside nowadays. i guess one reason is that the showing season has been extended.
 
Leo Walker said:
They refused to do anything as well. I gave up in the end and had one done. There just isnt anyone interested or able to police passports.
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The purpose of passports is to tax horse-owners. If there had been a genuine welfare reason for having them, there would have been one central PIO, so that anomalies couldn't have happened.
 
The thing that annoys me about them is that the horses that need to be traced such as those abandoned or in poor condition appear to have been rarely chipped or passported.
 
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