Many Happy Returns:

As tragic as the Cedar and Paradise fires were, they did provide some lessons in evacuation of large animals. More than 200 horses were rushed to the Del Mar Horse Park alone. We will use this hypothetical group to illustrate out point. Within the group there were probably 20 or more Quarter type horses, bay with minimal white markings. Possibly 20 others were sorrel or chestnut and similar in appearance. The opportunity for confusion is obvious. Even without a crisis factor, a lost or stolen horse can be difficult to identify by description alone. This presents a good case for considering permanent identification for your animal.

Equine victims of Hurricane Katrina were fortunate to live in a state that requires some form of permanent identification for all horses. Of the horses rescued, 85-90% were in compliance, mostly by having microchips imbedded in the neck. If the owner had the unique chip number recorded, claiming the horse was no problem. There are other areas where the chip is becoming more popular. Some breed registries are even considering using the numbers to organize competitions in the future. You may someday walk up to the show ring and simply be “scanned” through, entry form complete!

To answer a couple of questions owners usually have, the cost of insertion is in the $60-70 range. There are currently two chip manufacturers and they are developing web based data systems that owners can use for universal tracking. Also, when a chip is scanned to identify an animal, only the unique number is visible to the scanner. No personal or ownership information is available to the scan operator.

The commitment to keep a horse, both financial and emotional, is substantial. In many cases micro-chipping may make sense as an investment for life-long positive identification.