Microchips
Microchips are a permanent identification method that carries a variety of benefits.
Key Points:
- Microchips can be used for preventing fraud and theft, and in times of disaster
- Microchips are minimally invasive to place, and will not migrate once implanted
- Several large governing competition bodies require equine participants to be microchipped
Microchips in horses are used for a variety of reasons. These include preventing fraud, preventing theft, helping recover horses in times of disaster, and serving as a permanent form of identification that can be used in medical records, on health certificates and other documents, and during sales or transfer of ownership, among others.
Microchips used in horses are universal, meaning they meet a certain set of standards and can be read by any universal microchip reader.
In horses, microchips are placed on the left side, halfway between the poll and the withers, into the nuchal ligament. This placement is minimally invasive to implant, and using the nuchal ligament prevents the chip from migrating.
No information is stored on a microchip other than the number associated with the microchip. There is no GPS or tracking information on a microchip.
Some newer microchips are also biothermal, meaning that the horse’s body temperature can be read (in addition to the microchip number) when being scanned with an appropriate reader.
Starting in 2017, the Jockey Club started requiring all Thoroughbred foals to be microchipped, and by the end of 2017, the USEF and USHJA began implementing some microchip requirements. The most recent rule states that beginning December 1st, 2025, all horses competing in USEF licensed or endorsed competitions must be microchipped with a compliant 15-digit universal microchip.
