Your horse has a passport. A genuine official document, numbered, with his markings drawn by hand and pages only a veterinary surgeon may complète. In France it is called the identification document. Everyone calls it the livret.
The livret does not sleep in a plastic sleeve for decoration. It must follow the horse during every movement. It controls entry to compétition grounds, the sale of the animal, and the horse’s health status. Here is the point many owners discover too late: this status determines the treatments your veterinary surgeon is permitted to prescribe. If you lose the livret, the IFCE issues a replacement copy that freezes this status permanently.
Passport, Microchip and Registration Card: Three Different Things
We mix all three constantly. Yet they are three distinct objects with three distinct purposes.
The Microchip
The electronic transponder placed in the neck. It contains only a number. It proves that the horse in front of you is indeed the one described in the livret, nothing more.
The Livret
The identification document itself. Identity, origins, vaccinations, treatments, inspections. It belongs to the horse and follows him his entire life, including when he changes hands.
The Registration Card
The proof of ownership. It states who owns the horse according to the national registry. You keep this when you sell, and the buyer handles their registration separately.
The database that centralises everything is the SIRE, maintained by the IFCE. Every équine held in France has a line, and every place of detention must be declared there. If you want to understand how to read a registration number or how to manage the procedures, the page on the SIRE file and its procedures details the mechanism comprehensively.
What the Livret Contains, Section by Section
The document is divided into roughly twelve numbered sections. The first ones deal with identity: the graphic description, that drawing of a horse covered with marks noting every whorl, every white marking, every stripe. Next come the origins, ownership, identity inspections carried out over the years.
Two sections are reserved for vaccinations. Others await laboratory test results, anti-doping checks, visas for leaving the country.
And there is a section for chestnuts. These horny callouses on the inside of the limbs have their own pattern for each horse, like a fingerprint. It serves as backup when everything else is doubtful. Few owners know it exists.
The Medication Sheet Fixes Your Horse’s Health Status
The medication sheet occupies the beginning of the livret. It is the veterinary surgeon who records treatments administered when the molecule requires withdrawal from the food chain, temporary or permanent depending on the case.
Beware of a misconception still widespread in stables. Since 7 July 2021, an owner can no longer set their horse’s health status themselves by ticking a box. It is no longer a choice, it is a consequence of traceability. The status follows from what the veterinary surgeon has recorded, not from personal preference.
This detail has a concrete consequence the day your horse is unwell. If the livret is not available at the time of treatment, the veterinary surgeon cannot record the medication, and the follow-up becomes fragile. Keep it accessible in the yard, not in a box at home.
Vaccinations: What Matters is the Veterinary Surgeon’s Hand
There is no separate vaccination record for horses in France. Boosters are recorded in the livret, on the pages provided for équine influenza, tetanus and équine herpesvirus.
A vaccination entry is valid only if it bears the date, the vaccine name, the batch number, the veterinary surgeon’s signature and stamp. An incomplete entry can be challenged at a check, even if the injection did take place. The written record holds weight, not your memory.
The protocol itself depends on current regulations and the use you make of the horse. Fédération requirements for compétition are not the same as for a leisure horse that never leaves his field, and they evolve. Have your veterinary surgeon set your calendar, and verify your discipline’s rules before a season. Our page on horse vaccination details the diseases involved.
- The microchip number recorded in the livret matches the one read by the microchip reader.
- The drawn description matches the horse in front of you, markings included.
- The vaccination pages are completed by a veterinary surgeon, with date, vaccine, batch number, signature and stamp.
- No pages are torn, struck through or re-glued.
- The word “replacement” does not appear on the cover, or the seller explains why it does.
- The registration card exists, and the name on it is indeed that of the seller.
Three Moments When You Will Need It
When the Horse Moves
The identification document must accompany the équine during transport. A ride down the lane does not count, but as soon as the horse gets in a trailer or lorry, the livret travels with him. A roadside check, a veterinary issue en route, an equestrian centre asking for your papers on arrival: in all three cases, the livret answers. Those who regularly organise horse transport keep it with the vehicle papers in a waterproof wallet.
When the Horse Competes
At a compétition, the livret serves two verifications: the horse’s identity and the validity of his vaccinations. A horse whose booster record is questionable can be refused to start, even if entered and paid. The procedures for entry, licensing and inspection are described on our page on FFE compétitions and the SIF.
When the Horse Changes Hands
At sale, the livret goes with the horse. The registration card is used for the change of ownership procédure, which the buyer must declare to the SIRE within thirty days of purchase. This is not an optional formality, it is an obligation. A horse purchased and never declared remains, on paper, the property of someone else.
Lost, Damaged, Illegible: What Happens Next
A lost livret cannot be replaced identically. The IFCE issues a new document bearing the word “replacement”, and this replacement copy freezes the horse’s health status permanently. The rule aims at traceability: if the document has disappeared, nobody can guarantee which treatments have been administered since birth.
A request for exemption remains possible with the prefect when the owner provides solid traceability evidence. It is neither automatic nor quick. The simplest course is never to reach that point.
Three reflexes suffice. Photograph every page of the livret and keep the images somewhere other than your phone. Store the original in a rigid wallet, with the registration card kept separately. And when you lend your horse or put him somewhere else on livery, note who has the livret and for how long.
What the Livret Does Not Tell You
The livret is an identity card. It is not a log book. It will never say that your horse was trimmed seven weeks ago, that he had a mild colic in February, that his last worming was in autumn, that he has put on 33 pounds (15 kilograms) since spring, or that the osteopath found restriction on the left side.
Yet these details matter more day-to-day than the origins page. They serve the veterinary surgeon when he arrives in an emergency and asks how long it has been going on. They serve the next owner when you sell. They serve you most of all, to spot what repeats.
This is why field records are kept separately, in a health record that you keep yourself: farrier dates, weight, dentist, wormers, lameness episodes, feed changes. The livret proves who your horse is. The record shows how he is doing.
- The livret follows the horse, the registration card follows the owner.
- Your horse’s health status depends on what a veterinary surgeon records in the livret.
- Since 7 July 2021, exclusion from the food chain is no longer a matter of choice, it follows from traceability delays or recorded treatments.
- A replacement copy excludes the horse permanently. Losing the livret therefore has a permanent effect.
- After a purchase, declaration to the SIRE is made within thirty days.
- The livret does not replace a health record kept day by day.
This article describes the général workings of the équine identification document. It does not replace the advice of your veterinary surgeon, who alone records treatments and vaccinations, nor the official information from the IFCE for your SIRE procedures. If you are unsure about your horse’s status, a replacement document or a change of ownership, contact them directly before taking action.
