Horse care tips

Foals need a microchip and passport. Apply by 30 November in the year of birth or within six months of birth, whichever is later. Applications can take up to six weeks.

Know your vet-fee insurance limit before an emergency. Colic surgery may cost more than your cover, and it helps to have thought through your options calmly.

Ask for the dental chart after each check and keep it. It records what was found and treated, which helps at the next visit or if you see someone new.

It's a legal requirement to transport your horse with its passport. Keep it up to date with ownership, microchip number and vaccination history.

Check that your horse's microchip details are up to date on the national database — it's your best chance of getting a stolen horse back.

Keep your horse's passport locked away. A horse can't legally be sold or exported without one, so a secure passport helps protect it.

Take clear photos of your horse from both sides, front and back, showing markings and whorls — in summer and winter coats, as it can look very different.

A horse's passport must stay with it at all times — at its stable and whenever it moves. You can be fined if you can't show a valid passport for a horse in your care.

Bought a horse? Contact the Passport Issuing Organisation within 30 days to update the ownership details.

If a seller doesn't hand over the horse's passport, contact your local trading standards office for advice.

When a horse dies, return its passport to the organisation that issued it within 30 days. Ask if you'd like it sent back to you once invalidated.

Have the passport ready when the vet visits. The medicines your horse can be given depend on its food-chain declaration in the passport.

Only apply for a replacement passport if the original is truly lost — applying when it isn't is against the law.

Every vaccination a vet gives must be recorded in the passport, whether or not your horse is in the food chain.

All horses, ponies and donkeys in England, Wales and Scotland must be microchipped by law. Older horses with passports issued before this need the chip added.

Sticking the microchip label into the passport isn't enough — the passport organisation must record the chip number so it links to the Central Equine Database.

Use the National ChipChecker to confirm your horse's microchip and passport details match. If they're wrong, contact your Passport Issuing Organisation.

Thinking of buying a horse? Check its microchip on the Central Equine Database to see whether it's legally for sale.

Horse not microchipped? Combine it with a routine vet visit, such as the annual vaccination, to keep the cost down.

A horse given phenylbutazone (bute) must be permanently signed out of the food chain in its passport. This decision can't be reversed.

Keep a record of every medicine bought and given: product, batch number, supplier, dates, dose and withdrawal period. Proof of purchase must be kept too.

Keep horse medicine records for at least five years — even if you sell the horse and no longer have the passport.

If you dispose of an unused medicine, note the date, the quantity and how and where it was disposed of.

Write an emergency care plan for your horse: key contacts, normal temperature, pulse and breathing, health history, insurance details and your wishes. The BHS has a free template.

Name someone — ideally your yard manager and a trusted friend — who can make decisions for your horse in an emergency if you can't be reached, and talk your plan through with them.

Loaning a horse? Make sure the loan agreement says who makes emergency decisions and who pays the vet bills — and agree an emergency plan together.

Know your insurance before you need it: the maximum vet-fee cover, the excess, any exclusions, and whether the insurer pays the vet directly or you claim it back.

Start the year with a written health plan: vaccinations, dental checks, worm testing, farrier visits and weight records in one place. World Horse Welfare has a free template.

Review your horse's emergency care plan once a year, and again whenever its health or your circumstances change.

Competition bodies set their own flu vaccination rules and intervals. Check the rulebook for every organisation you compete under before the season starts.