Horse passports: guidance for owners, keepers, veterinarians and local authorities 2020

Section B: Definitions

‘Horse’ means wild or domesticated soliped mammal(s) of all species within the genus Equus of the family Equidae and their crosses.

‘Keeper’ means any natural or legal person having possession of, or being charged with, the keeping of horses, whether or not for financial reward, and whether on a temporary or permanent basis, including during transportation, at markets, or during competitions, races or cultural events.

‘Owner’ means the natural or legal person(s) having the ownership of the equine animal.

‘Holding’ means an agricultural or training establishment, a stable or any premises or facilities in which equidae are habitually kept or bred, for whatever use, and nature reserves in which equidae live in freedom.

‘Microchip’, is defined as a ‘transponder’ in Art 2(2) of the EU Regulation and is a read-only passive radio-frequency identification device:

(i) complying with standard ISO 11784 and applying Full Duplex (FDX or FDX –B) or Half Duplex (HDX) technology; and

(ii) capable of being read by a reading device compatible with standard ISO 11785, at a minimum distance of 12cm.

‘Vet’ means a veterinary surgeon who has membership of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) or of an equivalent body in an EU member State.

‘UKCED’ means the UK Central Equine Database.

‘ScotEquine’ means the Scottish Equine Database^[7] which is operated on behalf of Scottish Ministers by ScotEID to pass all data from Scottish Passport Issuing Organisations to the UK Central Equine Database and receive and hold data from the UK Central Equine Database on all horses whose owners have a Scottish postcode.

‘2019 Regulations’ means the Equine Animal (Identification) (Scotland) Regulations 2019.

‘Registered horse’ is a horse which is entered or registered and is eligible for entry in a studbook, in accordance with the rules laid down pursuant to Article 4(2)(b) of Directive 90/427/EEC^[8] and identified by means of an identification document provided for in Article 8(1) of that Directive; or

a horse, including ponies, registered with an international association or organisation, which manages horses for competition or racing and identified by means of an identification document issued by the national branch of that association or organisation.

‘Breeding and Production horse’ is any horse not referred to above or which is intended to be transported either directly or after transit through an approved marshalling centre, referred to in Article 7 of Directive 2009/156/EC^[9], to the slaughterhouse for slaughter.