I acquired a pony who I tried very hard to get papers for but was unsuccessful. At first I didn’t care that much because I just bought her to teach lessons on. Now she’s turned into something much more fancy than I had expected and I’d like to show her in some rated shows. What are the requirements for me to do so? How am I to prove her age regarding measuring her if I don’t have papers? I know the rules are changing regarding registration per USEF so just not sure if she’s even eligible to show without papers. All my others are Warmbloods with passports from quality registries so I’ve not had to deal with this before. Thank you for your help.
You should call the USEF directly. They are very nice and so helpful. But to answer your question, yes you can register her with USEF.
2 Likes
I’d think the vet would check her teeth.
Used to be a Vet age verification form. How many years of Coggins do you have on the pony? Depending on the breed, you can run DNA to match a previously registered horse if you have an idea of who the pony is?
To show, a horse or pony must have a USHJA registration. If you are going for points, then you will also need a USEF registration.
When a horse/pony is measured, the competition vet ages the horse/pony by looking at their teeth. On the form, you can say how old you think it is, but the vet will have the final say on age unless you have registration papers to back you up. Normally, not a problem unless the animal is around that seven/eight year old age where they may or may not need to be measured the following year.
3 Likes
You don’t need to go through the process of verifying age unless you’re planning to show in classes that require age verification (young jumper, young hunter, etc.). So no, your horse does not need to be registered with anything other than USEF for showing, and you do not need any breeding/registry info to get her a horse ID or recording number.
1 Like
age is on horse’s coggins, you don’t need a breed registration to show USEF. You will need to register pony with USEF and USHJA I believe and again, they don’t require Passport or any type of breed registration - if you have sire/dam info great.
I think her point is that you DO need age to get a permanent “Pony Card”.
1 Like
I see that upon reading the OP again!
OP - I would call USEF and ask. My assumption would be that you would be able to have a vet verify age for measurement via teeth. As for just the issue of measurement from show to show (or per year), it shouldn’t be an issue. To Janet’s point, the only question I would have would be whether you would be able to get a permanent card or might have to wait longer than a pony that had an age documented by papers.
Quickly perusing the rule book, I did find this in regard to pony measurements:
5. Once a foal year has been submitted to the Federation office, the original date cannot be changed without a copy of the animal’s breed registration papers or a signed statement from a veterinarian certifying the animal’s age.
This would seem to imply that a pony without papers would need a signed statement from a vet certifying age - but again, I would call and ask.
As I said, during measurement, the vet certifies if the horse/pony is over/under eight years of age. That is the “official” aging that matters with USEF for measurement cards if no registration papers/passport are presented. If the person presenting the horse/pony says said beastie is eight and the vet looks at the teeth and says it is six, then you’re going to want to have registration papers or a passport that matches said beastie to plead your case with the vet. You do not have to have registration papers/passport to get measured at a show.
Think you are confusing breed registration with the appropriate breed organization or studbook and recording with USE/USHJA.
Its semantics but when you refer to " registered", most assume you mean it has papers with sire, dam, foaling date and horses/Ponies do not heed to be registered to show in Open (no breed restrictions) USE/USHJA classes, including the Pony division. They do need to have a number with USE but unknown parentage and foaling date is fine and there is a procedure to follow to establish age.
You do need a measurement card and a number on both Pony and yourself to show.
Ask that lady who got the vet to lie about her pony’s age to get it measured at 4 and it went on to win the Greens at Pony Finals. I am kidding…that story still blows my mind and makes me not miss the ponies.
http://www.chronofhorse.com/article/magazine-ponies-papers-and-pushing-limits
