Ekidemy

In Galop 4, you learned the parts of the horse’s passport, its identification document. It belongs to a wider system: every equine in France must be identified — its document describes its markings — registered on the central database, and microchipped.

The SIRE number

SIRE — the Système d’Information Relatif aux Équidés, France’s equine information system — is the central database of horses, kept by the IFCE, the French Institute for the Horse and Riding. When it is first registered, at birth or on import, every equine is given a unique SIRE number of nine characters, ending in a check letter. The number never changes, even when the horse changes hands.

• It links the horse to its identification document, its owner and its history: it is the key to its record.
• It appears on the first page of the identification document and on the registration card, which names the owner.
• It is confidential: only the owner and authorised people — the identifying vet, the police… — can look it up.
• In Europe, the 15-character UELN identifies an equine everywhere: it adds a country code (250 for France) and a database code to the national number.

The microchip

The microchip, or transponder, is a glass capsule the size of a grain of rice — about 11 mm by 2 mm — inert and well tolerated. It holds no battery and no records: only a 15-digit number which, for a horse chipped in France, begins with 250 (the country), then 25 (the code for equines). That number is written in the identification document: it is the sure link between the horse and its papers.

Where it is implanted

On the left side of the neck, in its upper third, about 3 cm below the roots of the mane, around the middle of the neck, in the nuchal ligament. A fibrous sheath forms around it and holds it in place.

Who implants it

A vet or an authorised identifier approved by the IFCE, with a sterile, single-use injector: it is a veterinary procedure.

The reader

It sends out low-frequency radio waves that “wake” the chip; the chip sends back its number, which appears on the screen. It reads from a few centimetres away: pass the reader slowly along the left side of the neck.

What it is for

Proving that a horse is the one its document describes: at a check during a competition, at a sale, at a vet’s visit, or to trace a lost or stolen horse.

The registers, and registering to compete

In the past, to compete, a horse had to be entered on a register (liste): the Club register for Club classes, the sport-horse register for the other divisions, and a Pony register for ponies. Since January 2015, these registers have been replaced by a registration of the horse on the FFE website, made by its owner or by someone the owner has authorised. Young-horse classes, for their part, require registration with the SHF, the French body that runs them.

• The horse must have an identification document bearing a SIRE number and be registered with the FFE before it is entered.
• In Club classes, every horse is accepted, whether its breeding is recorded or not (ONC, “origins not recorded”). The Pony, Amateur and Pro divisions in principle require recorded breeding — sire and dam known and entered in the document; that year’s rules list the exceptions.
• At a competition, a check may confirm that the number read from the chip matches the one in the document.
• The horse’s vaccinations must be up to date, as you saw in Galop 4; and you, for your part, need a competition licence.