Regardless of where you live or what you do with your American Quarter Horse, the advantages of microchipping your horse are readily seen.

Microchipping can result in increased efficiencies in entering and checking in horses at shows and races, assist with recovering a horse in case of a natural disaster or theft, and more. AQHA members can now record their horses’ microchip ID numbers online at AQHA.com.

The microchip number will be added to the horse’s official record. The owner of the American Quarter Horse must have an active AQHA membership. If you need assistance with accessing your account or creating a new one, read this article. To renew or purchase a membership, visit www.aqha.com/services and click Join or Renew under Membership.

To record a microchip ID number on your horse’s record:

1. Login to your account at AQHA.com.
2. Select Microchip Update located under the ownership tab.
3. On the Microchip Update page, a section under owned horses will populate with your horse’s information. Select the edit icon to the right of the horse’s name to which you want to record the microchip number.
4. Enter the microchip number in the provided space.
5. Verify the microchip number; and click “Submit.” 

Recording your horse’s microchip ID number as a part of its official AQHA record allows AQHA to help properly identify that American Quarter Horse. Proper verification of a horse’s identity can contribute to the well-being of a horse and support consumer confidence during horse sales, competition, registration and natural disasters.

Additional information, including the microchip compliance standards, is available at www.aqha.com/microchip.

About the Microchip Pilot Program

The AQHA Studbook and Registration Committee recommended that the AQHA Executive Committee develop a business plan to implement microchipping as a chief means of effectively identifying American Quarter Horses. A task force, appointed by the Executive Committee to study microchipping, determined that microchipping creates consumer confidence, increases efficiencies, sustains membership and increases the value of a horse.

The microchip pilot project consists of reaching out to educate members, owners, breeders, trainers, show managers and others on the benefits of microchipping, and teaching how to properly microchip a horse. More than 20,000 horses in the AQHA database already have microchip IDs on their records. That’s equal to about half of 1 percent of the live population of American Quarter Horses. For more information, visit www.aqha.com/microchip.