If a horse lives on your property, in your field, stable, or rented land, the authorities consider you its keeper, and that location must be declared. This obligation has existed since 2010. What is changing is the process: from September 2026 onwards, the declaration of holding locations is being replaced by a new online procedure called management of usual places of residence, managed through IFCE’s SIRE portal. The paper form has already disappeared as of early summer. Here is what the official source says, what will be asked of you, and the checks to make now so the transition goes smoothly.
What IFCE is replacing, and when
This information comes not from paddock gossip but from an article published by the French Institute of Horse and Equestrian Studies on 30 June 2026, titled “Keepers: anticipate the evolution of holding location declarations.” The announcement states that from September 2026, the declaration of holding locations will be replaced by a new fully digital procedure called management of usual places of residence, accessible through the SIRE portal.
One point of honesty straight away: IFCE writes “from September 2026” and “planned for September 2026.” The institute does not communicate an exact date, and we have found no official text setting an opening on 1 September, even though several professional websites announce it that way. In other words, the month is confirmed, the day is not. What is certain, however, is that the transition has already begun: since early July 2026, the paper form for declaring holding locations is no longer being distributed. Everything now goes through the SIRE portal, including a declaration that needs to be made today, before the new system opens.
You are a keeper even if you don’t own the horse
This is the most common misunderstanding, and it is costly. Keeper and owner are two different things. The keeper is the natural or legal person responsible for an equine, regardless of who owns it, either permanently or temporarily. The owner of a horse in livery is not the keeper: the facility hosting it is. By contrast, an individual who takes home a friend’s horse for the summer is the keeper for the duration of the stay.
The new regulations maintain this logic and tighten the terminology. The keeper becomes an “equine-holding operator,” defined as a natural or legal person having equines under their responsibility, including for a limited duration, excluding veterinarians. The phrase “including for a limited duration” is aimed squarely at temporary boarding, loans, and rented fields for a few months.
Second trap, explicitly flagged by IFCE: the process is simple and free, but it is not automatic. Having a SIRE account as an owner, breeder, or stallion owner does not count as registration as a keeper. These are two separate files. Many horse-owning riders who have brought their horse home believe they are compliant because they are known to the system. They are not.
Usual place of residence begins at thirty days
The central concept of the new system is the usual place of residence. IFCE provides the regulatory definition: an establishment where an equine is held for more than 30 days. The operator may declare the usual place of residence of an equine once that animal is expected to remain at least thirty days at their establishment.
The difference from the old system is not cosmetic. Until now, the declaration served to list places that could accommodate equines. It said where horses could be, not which ones were there. From now on, each equine must be linked to a place of usual residence. We are moving from a map of locations to a link between a horse and an address.
At the launch of the new system, equines already present will need to be declared to have a place of usual residence. IFCE specifies that this initial declaration can be based on breeding records, particularly arrival dates. Those who keep their records properly will have half an hour of data entry. Others will need to reconstruct dates.
Operator, establishment, location, activity
The first part of the new process consists of registering and describing your operation according to a progressive structure, in four nested levels.
The operator, first: the person or entity responsible for the equines held, the one who carries out the procedures and declares movements. The establishment next: the legal entity within which equines are held, with a mandatory SIRET for businesses with a SIREN. The location, third level: a specific, geolocated place attached to an establishment, corresponding to an epidemiological unit, that is to say a group of equines sharing a common environment or managed as a unit. A single establishment may comprise several locations if they are in different municipalities or form distinct units. The activity, finally: livery, training, instruction, leisure, breeding. Each location must include at least one.
At each level, a contact must be designated, meaning a natural person with an email address and telephone number. IFCE is not coy about it: in the event of a health crisis, this person will be called to facilitate intervention by the relevant authorities. It is therefore not a box to fill haphazardly with the email of a former employee.
Seven days to declare a horse on arrival
The second part is what will change daily stable life. From a dashboard, the operator will be able to declare equines present at their establishments through an entry to the relevant location, declare permanent departures, declare temporary movements, and manage the movements of one horse or a group of horses.
Two rules to remember. On one hand, movements of more than thirty days that affect an equine’s usual place of residence must be declared. On the other hand, the operator will have seven days following the equine’s entry into their establishment to make the declaration to the central database. Seven days is tight when a horse arrives on a Friday evening before a holiday.
Other movements, competition trips or two weeks grazing at a neighbour’s field, remain optional: the institute only notes that declaring them provides more complete tracking and better data in a crisis situation. This is the kind of tracking many owners already keep, in a notebook or in a digital health record where vaccines, worming treatments, and stable changes accumulate.
The breeding register does not disappear
This must be said clearly, because this is where confusion will follow: this tool does not replace keeping a breeding register. IFCE states it explicitly. The register remains an obligation of the keeper, now called the operator, who must record all entries and exits of equines, as well as routine interventions and care provided to the herd. It is based on article L214-9 of the rural code and a decree of 5 June 2000.
In other words, there will now be two places where a horse’s history is written: the central database, which interests the State and Europe, and the breeding register, which stays with you and which an inspector can ask to see. The third, the one everyone forgets in a drawer, is the horse’s identification document, which travels with it and whose medication section determines its food status.
Why Europe wants to know where every horse sleeps
This project is not a French whim. It implements European regulations on animal health, which make it mandatory to register the usual place of residence of equines in the central database of each member state. The objective stated by IFCE is this: in the event of a health crisis, the relevant authorities can quickly identify affected keepers.
This sentence seems abstract until you have lived through an alert. It becomes very concrete when a disease appears thirty kilometres from your stable. This summer, five horses were confirmed as carriers of West Nile virus in the Gard region, after three cases in the Pyrénées-Orientales. In these situations, the first question from veterinary services is always the same: which equines are in the perimeter, and who do we call. A register that lists locations without knowing who occupies them does not answer this question. A register that links each horse to an address does. That is the whole point of the reform, and it also explains the mechanics of regional health alerts for which SIRE already allows you to receive notices by email.
The risk for those who have declared nothing
The subject upsets people, so we will stick to the texts. IFCE recalls that inspections have been in place since 2015 to verify the regulatory obligations of equine keepers, carried out by institute staff, and that failure to comply with these health obligations can result in penalties of 450 to 1,500 pounds (EUR 550-1,850). On the legal basis, the institute cites article R215-14 of the rural code: failure to declare a holding location is subject to a fine provided for class five offences.
This is not scaremongering. The vast majority of keepers will never see an inspector, and registration is free. But the gap between a ten-minute formality and a class five fine justifies an evening at your SIRE portal. The same logic applies to the federation licence that expires on 31 August: one forgotten administrative line, and it is a guarantee that lapses at the worst moment.
What makes a declaration compliant
- The very existence of the registration. Being known to SIRE as an owner is not enough. The keeper declaration is a separate procedure to be done before the first horse arrives at the location.
- The certificate. The registration generates a receipt bearing the keeper number assigned by SIRE. This is the document that serves as proof in case of inspection, and it must be available for presentation.
- The accuracy of the address and contact. A telephone number that no longer works empties the declaration of its purpose on the day of a health alert.
- Consistency with the breeding register. The arrival and departure dates recorded in the register must match what will be declared in the central database.
- The closure of locations no longer in use. An old field declared and never closed skews the health map as much as a location never declared.
Six checks to make now
IFCE recommends not waiting for the opening: correctly recorded data will be used to pre-populate the new system, and the more reliable they are, the smoother the transition. The list comprises six points, all verifiable in one session.
Check your access to your SIRE portal, that is to say, retrieve your login details before you need them. Verify your identity, particularly the entry of your SIREN for businesses and sole traders. Verify your associated contact details, particularly the entry of your SIRET. Verify the holding locations currently declared. Verify the activities declared, or enter them if they are not. Finally, close locations that are no longer used.
Two situations will present themselves next. Those who have never declared a holding location will need to go through an initial registration, with a first establishment, its locations and activities. Those who have already declared will see each existing location taken up as an establishment, location, and activity, and will have direct access to the dashboard, even if they then need to reorganise locations that actually belong to the same establishment. The institute also held a presentation webconference on 7 July 2026, for which a replay is available.
The obligations that come with it, and which people forget
The declaration of location is only one piece of a larger puzzle. Three other obligations come up regularly in inspections, and they often surprise private individuals.
First, the certificate of commitment and knowledge. Since late December 2022, any non-professional person keeping an equine must be able to prove they have one. It is issued by a veterinarian or by a professional body in the industry listed on a ministerial list, and its basis is article D214-37-1 of the rural code, derived from the decree of 18 July 2022 on protecting animals from abuse.
Then the health veterinarian. Any keeper of three or more equines is required to designate a health veterinarian, in accordance with the decree of 23 July 2012. Three horses is the field of a riding family, not a racing yard.
Finally, the animal welfare representative. Since 1 January 2022, any facility housing equines as part of a professional activity must designate an animal welfare representative, who may be the manager themselves, with dual notification at the holding location and in the breeding register. This is a point that riders looking for livery for their horse can check when visiting a yard: a facility that cannot answer this question probably has other issues it is missing.
Key takeaways
- From September 2026, the declaration of holding locations is replaced by management of usual places of residence, online through the SIRE portal. IFCE has not announced an exact date.
- The paper form has not been available since early July 2026.
- A usual place of residence is an establishment where an equine is held for more than thirty days. Each horse must be linked to it.
- A movement of more than thirty days that changes the usual residence must be declared within seven days of the horse’s arrival.
- The breeding register remains mandatory and is not replaced by the new tool.
- Failure to declare a holding location falls under class five offences, and IFCE mentions penalties of 450 to 1,500 pounds (EUR 550-1,850) for non-compliance with health obligations.
Arrival dates, stable changes, vaccines, worming treatments, veterinary interventions: these are exactly the pieces of information the new procedure will ask you to find.
What we could not verify
Three grey areas deserve to be flagged rather than hidden. The exact opening date is not published: IFCE speaks of September 2026, without a specific day. The maximum penalty is not detailed beyond the range of 450 to 1,500 pounds (EUR 550-1,850) and the reference to class five offences. Finally, the procedures for handling the most complex cases, multiple sites in multiple municipalities, will only be known when the tool opens. In case of doubt, the right place to turn is SIRE support, not a forum.
This article describes a regulatory framework as of 30 August 2026. It constitutes neither legal advice nor veterinary guidance. For your specific situation, particularly if you are currently being inspected, contact IFCE, your health veterinarian, or your usual advisor. Those discovering the full extent of obligations alongside their budget will find a complete overview in our feature on the true cost of a horse, paperwork included.
Sources
IFCE, article “Keepers: anticipate the evolution of holding location declarations,” published 30 June 2026. IFCE, fact sheet “Holding location,” SIRE and procedures section, health and holding subsection. IFCE, fact sheet “Obligations of equine keepers,” citing article R215-14 of the rural code, article L214-9 and the decree of 5 June 2000 on breeding records, the decree of 23 July 2012 on health veterinarians, the decree of 18 July 2022 and the decrees of 29 December 2022 on the certificate of commitment and knowledge. IFCE webconference, 7 July 2026. Equirider is neither a government service nor a SIRE operator.
