The modern horse passports also state (amongst many things) whether the horse can be used in the foodchain upon death or not. That's the owners choice, mine were definitely not. But depending on vaccinations and worming, it might only be the animal foodchain they can be used in, not the human.
Our current one was issued by Weatherby’s since he was a registered racehorse. It is marked as ‘not for human consumption’ but also now ‘not for racing’ as he has been retired from racing (even though he never actually raced).
There is also a legal requirement to update the owner’s details within 30 days of change.
The passports don’t contain a photograph of the horse but do include a written description of a horse’s colour and markings, such as white bits (eg blaze or star on the face, socks on the legs etc) and ‘whorls’ (points on the horse where the coat meets in different directions and sort of sticks up).
However they are all (or should be) microchipped now too, which has done away with the old freeze marking which was common a while back.
