In Belgium, every horse, pony, and donkey must be identified and registered in a central database: HorseID. Anyone who buys a horse in Belgium, keeps one there, or moves there with an animal has to deal with that system. Below is how it works, who is responsible, and the deadlines you need to act within.
What HorseID Is
HorseID is Belgium's central database for equines. The Federal Public Service for Public Health (FOD Volksgezondheid) has delegated its implementation to the Belgian Horse Confederation (BCP), with a sub-delegation to Paardenpunt Vlaanderen for Flanders and the Confédération Wallonie-Bruxelles du Cheval for Wallonia. Registration is done online via horseid.be or with a paper form.
Who Must Register
The keeper of the horse is responsible for registration. That's not necessarily the owner: whoever actually has a horse in their care — a stable owner in a boarding arrangement, for instance — can count as the keeper. If in doubt, check with your stable or at horseid.be who carries the registration duty in your situation.
What Gets Registered
Three elements are mandatory for correct identification:
- An EU-compliant passport, including, among other things, the section for veterinary medicines.
- A microchip, implanted in the left side of the neck according to the current ISO standards.
- Registration in HorseID itself: the horse's details, linked to the keeper.
In addition, every location where a horse is kept — a premises — must be registered, even for a horse kept at someone's home. This requirement has applied since February 2022.
Deadlines for Foals
Two separate deadlines apply to a foal:
- Registration: within 6 months of birth.
- Chipping and requesting a passport: within 12 months of birth.
If that last deadline is missed, the horse is permanently excluded from slaughter for human consumption — an irreversible consequence, so not a deadline to stretch.
Moving and Importing From the Netherlands
If you bring a horse from the Netherlands (or another EU member state) to Belgium, identification must be in order within 30 days of arrival, and before any change of keeper. For general changes — an address change for an already-registered horse, for instance — a deadline of 7 working days applies. For the exact procedure, required documents, and current costs, horseid.be is the source to consult; these can change and depend on the precise situation.
Oversight: FOD and FAVV
Responsibility for policy lies with the Federal Public Service for Public Health (FOD Volksgezondheid). The Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (FAVV) supervises from a food-safety perspective — the registration is meant, among other things, to ensure a horse can be traced quickly in a disease outbreak and that it's clear whether the animal may enter the food chain. The practical implementation and day-to-day registration run through BCP and horseid.be, not directly through the FAVV.
The Difference With the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, the identification and registration (I&R) of horses runs through the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO): the keeper registers with RVO and reports the animal's location there. As the guide on horse ownership paperwork describes, that's a different system from the Belgian one, with its own registration point and its own procedures.
If you move with a horse from the Netherlands to Belgium — or the other way around — the competent authority changes along with it: a horse permanently stabled in Belgium must register in HorseID, even if it's already registered with RVO. The Dutch passport and chip remain valid, but registration in the Belgian system is added on top. Consult horseid.be for the precise registration procedure for a cross-border move.
In Short
Every horse in Belgium must have an EU-compliant passport, be microchipped, and be registered in HorseID — the database the Belgian Horse Confederation manages on behalf of the FOD Volksgezondheid, with the FAVV supervising food safety. The keeper is responsible for registration, foals are subject to deadlines of 6 months (registration) and 12 months (chip and passport), and importing from the Netherlands or another EU member state carries a deadline of 30 days after arrival. For the current procedure, costs, and documents, horseid.be is the source to consult.
See also: Horse Ownership Paperwork Explained · Transporting Your Own Horse Privately · Glossary: horse passport / FAVV · Level: Considering Your Own Horse · Official sources: horseid.be · favv.be