Pending approval, endurance and show jumping horses in the UAE may soon be identified by micro-chip tagging.

This breakthrough in equine science was one of the subjects discussed during the UAE Equestrian and Racing Federation's first annual local endurance veterinarians meeting of the season at the Abu Dhabi Sheraton Residence.

While discussing the UAE Federation's move to introduce microchip tagging of endurance and show jumping horses for identification purposes, Dr. Niranjan, a veterinarian at the Federation, briefly explained the advantages of such a system and said the chip helps in easy identification of the history of horses.

Pending approval, endurance and show jumping horses in the UAE may soon be identified by micro-chip tagging.

This breakthrough in equine science was one of the subjects discussed during the UAE Equestrian and Racing Federation's first annual local endurance veterinarians meeting of the season at the Abu Dhabi Sheraton Residence.

While discussing the UAE Federation's move to introduce microchip tagging of endurance and show jumping horses for identification purposes, Dr. Niranjan, a veterinarian at the Federation, briefly explained the advantages of such a system and said the chip helps in easy identification of the history of horses.

"A project report regarding this issue has been submitted to the higher authorities and the approval is being awaited," he said.

Microchip tagging is a safe technique and takes only a few seconds to administer he said and added that a readable microchip is injected in the left side of the neck.

This tiny injectable chip contains an identification number and is recognisable throughout the world. The chip is enclosed in a smooth, biocompatible glass and is small enough to fit into a needle and in no way hurts the animal, according to a press release from the Federation.

Monday's meeting, which was inaugurated by Hussein Mohammed Hussein, Secretary General of the Federation, was attended by 44 veterinary doctors, experts and trainers from different emirates. The main aim of the meeting was to review the 2002-2003 endurance season and also to elicit suggestions and improvements for the forthcoming season.

Discussions during the meeting also covered proper documentation with special emphasis on FEI passports and Vaccination Identity Cards, problems encountered during the endurance rides and gifted/sold horses re-entering the country in different names.

Special focus was laid on issues related to veterinary control in endurance rides, treatment during trail, education of trainers and riders and import and export of horses.

Dr. Alex Atock, well-known veterinarian, stressed the importance of identification of horses. In this respect he emphasised the importance of passport control which helps in the movement of the horses internationally.

These documents have now come to be accepted as important identification papers along with those of the vaccination identity documents, he said.

Dr. Tom Morton, Veterinary Advisor, Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture, while giving a brief on the import and export of horses, felt stringent measures were necessary while importing or exporting horses, or else, 'there is the danger of standards slipping because of the huge volume of import."

While emphasising the importance of isolation centres, Dr. Morton said more isolation centres would be welcome and more supervising trainers would also be an added advantage at these centres along with that of supervising veterinary surgeon.

Dr. Morton, while lauding the organising of such an annual meeting, said it could come at no better time than this as the country was preparing to host the World Endurance Championship in 2004.

Qualifier ride tomorrow

Abu Dhabi A 42-km Qualifier Ride tomorrow will kickstart the2003-04 endurance season at the Emirates Endurance Village in Al Wathba, Abu Dhabi.

Organised by the UAE Equestrian and Racing Federation the Qualifier ride will be followed by an Open event on October 23 before a break during Ramadan.

Around 50 riders will be participating in the ride run in two phases of 28 and 14km respectively. The ride is expected to begin at 6am.