Horse papers in Canada: no passport, the Coggins at the border, brand inspection out west, and the EID

By Sebastien Kister

Last reviewed 6 November 2026

A Canadian horse has no passport, and nobody in Ottawa forgot to give it one. When the federal government proposed new livestock traceability rules in 2023, it considered horses and left them out. What the law asks for instead turns up at particular moments: when the land a horse lives on is registered, when it is sold or leaves the province in the West, when it crosses into the United States, and when it is presented for slaughter. That last one reaches back six months into its treatment history.

No passport, and horses were left out on purpose

The proposed amendments to the traceability part of the Health of Animals Regulations, published in the Canada Gazette in March 2023, cover bison, cattle, goats, deer and elk, pigs and sheep. Their impact statement says it plainly: it was decided "to exclude horses, the remaining livestock species, from the proposed Regulations at this time". The reasons it gives are that horses share the fewest diseases with the regulated species, that inspecting them would be costly, and that horse owners were not agreed, and it adds that horse traceability "could be achieved through means other than federal regulations".

That package has not become law. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency paused its publication in January 2026, and the revised approach it announced in June 2026 goes ahead for goats, sheep, cervids and pigs, holds back the new movement reporting for cattle and bison, and does not mention horses at all.

The "other means" so far is Equestrian Canada's Canadian Horse Identification Program, announced in December 2024: voluntary, national, free, and open to any horse born or living in Canada, whether or not its owner is a member. CFIA has allocated it a microchip number series of its own, starting 124-000. The program "highly recommends" a microchip, but a description and photographs are accepted instead.

Four provinces register the land

What the law does register, in the four western provinces, is the place the horse is kept. Each runs a premises identification program, and each lists horses, donkeys and mules:

• Alberta: "If livestock or poultry are in your care and control, you need to apply for a PID account", even for a single animal.
• Saskatchewan: premises identification is set by The Animal Production Act and its regulations, and the province's page names the owner or operator of any regulated animal kept at a premises, horses included, as the one who should register. Since 1 January 2025 the manifest for animals being transported has to give the premises numbers of the origin and the destination.
• Manitoba: the Animal Premises Identification Regulation requires every premises with livestock to apply. The province's own FAQ asks "Do I have to apply if I have one horse?" and answers yes.
• British Columbia: mandatory since 1 July 2022, small hobby farms included, and free.

Ontario's Provincial Premises Registry is voluntary. Quebec's traceability system, run by Attestra, covers cattle, sheep and deer and leaves equids out, so a horse kept in Quebec has no identification or premises-registration rule.

In three western provinces, a sale or a journey can mean an inspection

Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia inspect horses the way they inspect cattle, by brand and description, because a horse that changes hands or leaves the province is the one that can go missing:

• Alberta: inside the province, no manifest or permit is needed unless the horse is being moved for sale or slaughter or to an inspection site. A horse going anywhere outside Alberta must be inspected first. Livestock Identification Services issues a Livestock Permit for one journey, valid seven days at most, an Annual Horse Permit that expires on 31 December or when the horse is sold, and a Lifetime Horse Permit that lasts until the horse changes owner.
• Saskatchewan: Livestock Services of Saskatchewan inspects horses before a sale, before they leave the province (except to an Alberta market inspection site or a Manitoba stockyard), and before they enter a feedlot.
• British Columbia: a sale yard accepts a horse only with the regulation's Form 3, a completed livestock manifest, and a horse sent to a slaughterhouse or a feedlot, in or out of the province, needs a certificate of inspection as well. North of the 57th parallel, a horse over six months old must be branded unless it is registered under the Animal Pedigree Act.

No equivalent rule for horses turned up for Ontario or Quebec. A brand inspection certificate is also, out west, the nearest thing a horse has to a title: an inspected horse has a paper trail that says who sold it to whom.

The Coggins: voluntary at home, required at the border

Equine infectious anemia is a reportable disease under the Health of Animals Act. CFIA does not require routine testing for moving a horse inside Canada; the test is asked for mainly by shows, races and sales. What is mandatory is the response to a positive: "Equines that are positive for EIA are ordered destroyed", with compensation of up to $2,000 per horse; the premises is quarantined, and the horses that were in contact are tested and released only after two negative tests, the second at least 45 days after their last possible contact. Since 1 December 2021, accredited veterinarians have had to issue the test certificate through CFIA's digital system, with photographs of the horse, unless their practice does ten tests a year or fewer and has been granted an exemption.

The disease has not gone. Quebec reported a case at Saint-Damase in March 2024, its first since 2017, and the provincial ministry's advice was that horses should go only to gatherings that require a recent negative test. Cheval Québec requires a negative Coggins from the current year at the events it organizes.

Crossing into the United States is where the paperwork becomes fixed. A Canadian horse needs:

• a health certificate from an examination within 30 days of travel, endorsed by a salaried veterinarian of the Canadian government;
• a negative EIA test taken within 180 days before export, at a CFIA- or USDA-approved laboratory;
• 60 days in Canada or the US before export; a horse that has been in Canada for less time also needs a health certificate from every country it was in.

CFIA's manual for accredited veterinarians adds two rules: the vet may not sign the certificate before the EIA result has come back, and the horse must not have been vaccinated in the 14 days before export. A Canadian horse returning within 60 days of entering the US can come home on the same certificate, without a new EIA result. The other way, under Canada's requirements as APHIS published them in 2016, a horse coming into Canada from the US needs an examination within 30 days and a negative EIA test from the previous six months.

The paper that reaches back 180 days: the Equine Information Document

Canada slaughters horses for meat, and the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations require the plant to obtain, before slaughter, a record covering "the last 180 days of the life of an equine": any disease diagnosed, "the names of any drugs and vaccines that were administered", and what the horse was used for. That record is CFIA's Equine Information Document, mandatory since July 2010. It identifies the horse in detail, from markings and brands to the microchip, and lists every drug and vaccine given in those 180 days with its DIN, the date of the last dose, the withdrawal period and the route; the owner signs a declaration, and a CFIA veterinarian reviews it. Earlier owners' documents can be attached to cover the whole period, and a horse whose record is incomplete is not slaughtered for food.

Some drugs close that door for good. CFIA's list of substances not permitted in equines intended for food includes phenylbutazone, chloramphenicol, the nitrofurans and metronidazole, and "equine animals with a historical record of non-permitted drug usage (section 6) must not be presented for slaughter as food animals". CFIA applies a zero tolerance to phenylbutazone in food.

Most owners never sell a horse for meat. But a horse that is sold on can reach an auction years later, and whoever fills in its document then needs dates nobody wrote down. A treatment record with the product and the date is what lets a seller fill it in honestly, or know that the horse is not eligible.

Sport papers: Equestrian Canada and the FEI

Equestrian Canada issues two documents of its own. The Horse Recording is a digital identification document without veterinary validation, required at Silver and Gold competitions in dressage, eventing, jumping and para-equestrian. The EC National Passport is required at Silver and Gold in endurance, and at Platinum level a horse needs the National Passport or an FEI Recognition Card, depending on the classes. The National Passport is accepted for CIM 1* and 2* events in Canada, and with a Recognition Card, renewed every four years, it works as a full FEI passport.

Since its launch in January 2026, the FEI's Equipass app has put a digital copy of an FEI-registered horse's passport on a phone. It complements the paper passport rather than replacing it.

Ownership: breed papers and a bill of sale

None of these papers is a government title to the horse. Registration under the federal Animal Pedigree Act records that a horse belongs to a breed, not who owns it, although the breed associations record transfers, and a seller who sells a horse as registered has to hand over its duly transferred certificate within six months of the sale. The stud book of the Canadian Horse, the national horse of Canada since 2002, is kept by the Canadian Livestock Records Corporation. Otherwise, ownership is proved the ordinary way: a written sales contract and proof of payment, and in the West the brand and its inspection certificates.

What to keep

• The bill of sale and proof of payment, and the registration certificate transferred into your name if the horse is registered.
• The latest EIA test certificate, with its date: it decides whether the horse can go to a show, a sale or the border.
• Your premises identification number, in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba or British Columbia.
• Western permits and inspection certificates, and the Equestrian Canada Horse Recording or passport if you compete.
• A dated record of every drug and vaccine, with the product: it is the EID's raw material, and the vet's.

Sources

• Canada Gazette, Part I (18 March 2023) — Regulations Amending the Health of Animals Regulations (identification and traceability)
• CFIA statements on the traceability regulations: 10 January 2026 and 2 June 2026
• Equestrian Canada — Canadian Horse Identification Program and horse identification documents; the program's launch (6 December 2024); FEI Equipass and Sports Forum 2026, session 8 (its launch)
• Premises identification: Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba (FAQ), British Columbia, Ontario
• Gouvernement du Québec — Traçabilité des animaux d'élevage
• Livestock Identification Services (Alberta): transporting livestock and permits, special permits and lifetime horse permits; Saskatchewan — livestock inspection and transportation; British Columbia — Livestock Identification Regulation
• CFIA, equine infectious anemia: control program, what to expect if your animals may be infected and digital test certificates
• MAPAQ — Avis de vigilance, anémie infectieuse des équidés (22 March 2024) and Cheval Québec — Biosécurité
• USDA APHIS: horses from Canada and Canada's requirements for horses from the US; CFIA Accredited Veterinarian's Manual, chapter 5.5 (horses)
• Safe Food for Canadians Regulations, section 165; CFIA Equine Information Document and safety of horse meat
• Animal Pedigree Act and National Horse of Canada Act; Canadian Horse Breeders Association — FAQ

Requirements change, and each province's agency has the final word; check its current page before you travel or sell.

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