Registration and Overstamp
The Welsh Pony and Cob Society is a UK Approved Passport Issuing Organisation, Number 826046.
The Society can register all Welsh Breeds equines including their Part-Breds that are born, or are permanent residents in the U.K., subject to their eligibility for registration with the Society.
The Society has a comprehensive document outlining all rules relating to passporting equines with us. All applicants should first familiarise themselves with these rules before submitting any application to the Society. The document is available under the Passport Services section of the 'Downloads' page on our website. By submitting a passport service application to the Society, you are agreeing to abide by these rules at all stages. Registration of equines is highly regulated in the U.K. and the Society must follow these strict guidelines imposed by the U.K. and Welsh Governments. It is a legal requirement for all equines in the U.K. to be microchipped and passported.
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Providing the application is received correctly completed (in line with the Society's rules of registration), then the turnaround time is 15 working days. If an application is returned due to errors, this 15 working days turnaround will start again from the point of correct re-submission to the Society Office.
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For a full list of prices, please visit the main Passport Services page and follow the link to the Price List.
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The Society strongly recommends that all applications/documents/passports are sent by Signed For, Tracked, or Special Delivery and that customers pay the Society the same for the return of the completed passport(s). Alternatively, customers may include a pre-paid, self-addressed envelope for the return of the completed passport(s).
By sending the application via recorded delivery, customers can track the package and ensure it has been delivered to the Society Office safely. Alternatively, customers can include a stamped addressed postcard which will be returned to confirm receipt of the package. The Society cannot answer calls asking whether a passport or application has been received; so please do not call. By sending the package via recorded delivery, receipt can be verified by inputting the tracking number to the Royal Mail Track & Trace website.
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Guidelines to Register with the Society
Guidance for registration services can be found below. Please also familiarise yourself with the Rules of Registration and Passporting before submitting an application.
To register a Pure or Part-Bred animal with the Society, a fully completed current Society registration application form should be completed by the breeder, with the animal being microchipped by a qualified veterinary surgeon and the silhouette and description as a whole confirmed and signed off by the veterinary surgeon.
A £10 administration fee will be applied to forms containing three or more errors, which much be paid upon the resubmission of the form to the Office. An administration fee will also be applied to any registration form received in the office where that animal has not been microchipped by a vet, or where the microchip number has not been recorded on the form, prior to submission of that form into the office. If an administration fee is required for incorrect or incomplete submission, then the registration will not be processed until the administration fee has been paid.
The details of the sire and the dam must be clearly supplied on the registration form. If either the sire or dam is unknown, this should also be noted clearly on the form, and must not be left blank. The Welsh Pony and Cob Society cannot register animals with no known breeding i.e., both Sire and Dam noted as unknown. In cases where there is an animal with no known breeding, the Society can offer a basic ID-only passport via the EquiCymru passport service.
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In order to record a person(s) as breeder of an animal, the Welsh Pony and Cob Society requires that person(s) to be recorded as the owner of the dam at the time of foaling or recorded as having the dam on lease/loan at the time of foaling. Ownership records must be kept up to date, otherwise the offspring cannot be registered.
If the covering stallion is owned by the breeder, then the ‘service certificate’ part of the registration application form must be signed by the breeder, or they must supply a separate covering certificate. If the breeder of the foal is different from the owner of the stallion at the time of covering, then a signed and dated service certificate is required to confirm the covering or the ‘service certificate’ part of the registration application form must be signed and dated by the owner of the covering stallion. In any case, the owner of the stallion at the time of covering must sign either the section on the form or a separate service certificate which must accompany the registration form.
All registration passports are issued to the breeder by default, as a foal should not leave the premises of the breeder unless accompanied by its passport.
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The Welsh Pony and Cob Society requires late applications for Pure Bred colts and fillies received after 1st of January in their yearling year to have a full DNA parentage report, confirming that both the sire and dam are correct, before registering the animal. This will also incur a late entry fee. DNA testing kits can be obtained from the Welsh Pony and Cob Society office.
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If the foal is the first Pure Bred registered offspring from a mare, then the Welsh Pony and Cob Society requires a DNA profile for the dam to be held on file. Without this, the application for the foal will not be completed.
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All Welsh Breeds foals must be registered on or before the 30th of November of the year of foaling. Applications that have been received after this time will be classed as late and will incur additional costs. This is a Welsh Government set deadline.
Overstamp of a Breed Society Passport
If an animal eligible for registration with the Society already holds a passport from a different Passport Issuing Office (PIO) and is resident in the UK with the full breeding details printed inside, it is possible for the Welsh Pony and Cob Society to overstamp the passport with the WPCS registration number.
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Please note that an ‘application for overstamp form’ is required in order to overstamp passports. Incomplete or incorrect applications received will be rejected and returned to the sender to enable corrections to be made. The original passport must be sent to the Society along with the application for overstamp form, so the Society registration number can be recorded in the passport.
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The ownership records MUST be up to date with the Passport Issuing Office that produced the passport in the case of overstamping. The Society cannot overstamp the animal if the ownership is not up to date with the issuing PIO. When an animal that is overstamped with the Society is sold, a transfer of ownership must be made with the PIO that produced the passport in the first instance, but also must be made with the Welsh Pony and Cob Society, to enable the Society to update our records. The passport does not need to be sent to the Society in this case, but the fee is required and a copy of the transfer of ownership pages within the passport showing the new owners name, address, and the PIO’s Society Official Stamp. This can be supplied as a scan/photo and emailed to the Welsh Pony and Cob Society. In the case of an animal that is passported with another PIO, that has been submitted for overstamping with the Welsh Pony and Cob Society, where this animal has a parent(s) either registered, or overstamped with the Welsh Pony and Cob Society, we will require the ownership of that sire or dam to be up to date with the Society before processing the overstamp for the animal, as we would for a normal first-passport registration.
Overseas Registration Certificates
Following the UK’s departure from the EU, post Brexit, the Welsh Pony and Cob Society is now unable to legally produce passports for Welsh Ponies and Cobs bred and domiciled in EU member state countries. However, mindful of those WPCS members and breeders, many of whom are longstanding life members of the Society from within the EU countries, who wish to continue to register their stock within the main mother Society Stud book, the Society is launching a new register as part of the Welsh Stud book which has the backing of the Welsh Government Brexit exit team and the Equine ID and Welfare departments.
The Society stud book has since the 1950’s included a section for ‘Overseas Registrations (OS)’. This has enabled breeders from outside the UK to register their stock from animals imported originally from the UK in that section on a level playing field with those home registered animals, thereby ensuring that those bloodlines are not lost to the gene pool. In real terms it does authenticate the animal registered.
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With the advent of the new Overseas Register (OR), the Society will continue to register these animals which are passported in EU Countries, by issuing WPCS Official Registration Certificates as we cannot now issue passports for animals that are bred or reside in the EU. The process is as follows:
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A passport is produced by the EU country.
The Zootechnic certificate is also produced by that country. These documents are for identification, travel, traceability, health and germinal purposes.
The breeder or owner applies to the WPCS to have the animal entered into the Overseas Register (OR) by providing photographic copies of the required pages from the passport, by email and pays the £25.00 fee.
The Overseas Registration Certificate issued by the WPCS details the Pedigree, and the section of the Welsh Stud book where that animal is registered. This certificate is only available to Welsh breed animals born outside the UK which comply with the WPCS Breeding rules for eligibility.
How will this work in practice?
Our aim will be to make the process completely digital and paperless.
1. The breeder obtains a passport for their animal in the EU country of their choice (ideally from a WPCS daughter Society in that country)
2. The breeder scans the following passport pages clearly:
Front details page to include the registration number in their stud book and UELN.
Pedigree page with registration numbers
Diagram page
DNA reference number
If it is not passported by a Daughter Society of the WPCS, the breeder would also have to scan and send: Confirmation of ownership/ lease of the dam
Conformation of ownership/ lease of the sire or a valid service certificate signed by the stallion owner.
Confirmation of the Stallion’s licence number
3. The breeder emails the scans to the WPCS and pays the Overseas registration fee online via the WPCS website.
4. The WPCS Overseas Registration application is checked by a staff member on our database. Once checked and validated and entered into the Stud book, a WPCS Overseas registration (OR) number is created for the animal.
5. This bespoke WPCS Overseas Registration certificate is watermarked and given a unique issue number to prevent fraudulent activity.
6. It is then emailed to the breeder – who can download it or choose to print it out. Their animal is now registered in the WPCS Overseas Register (OR). The reverse of the certificate will show the animals pedigree.
Illustrated below are the mating’s and where the resultant offspring would appear in the Studbook registers:
Stock bred in the EU:
• IA x OR = OR
• IR x IR = OR
• OR x OR = OR
• OR x WM (exported from the UK) = OR
• WS x OR (exported from the UK) = OR
• WS (exported) x WM (exported) = OR
Stock bred in the UK or outside of the EU:
• IA x OR = IR
• IR x IR = IR
• OR x OR = IR
• OR x WM = IR
• WS x OR = IR
If an animal is bred by or out of an animal which already holds an (OS) registration with the WPCS then there is no suffix, it appears in the studbook as WS or WM as do all other UK bred animals without any IR or OR parentage.
(OR) animals are eligible to compete for WPCS medals and awards and be sold through Official Society sales.
Section 'X'
Section X was created for animals of known parentage, who fall outside of the standard rules of the Welsh Pony and Cob Society for registration in the Pure and Part-Bred register in that their sire was not a licenced stallion, or in the case of Pure Bred animals, if they exhibit too much white on the body.
Animals registered in Section X are not eligible for entry in official Society sales and are not eligible for participation in Mountain and Moorland showing classes or for the award of Welsh Pony and Cob Society medals.
Animals registered in Section X that are not of solid colour, from correctly registered and licenced parents, can be bred from and their offspring entered into the main Stud Book if they are of solid colour. The offspring must be DNA parentage verified. These applications will be discussed by Council and, if accepted, the offspring will be registered in the main Stud Book. In essence, the breeder, choosing to breed from a Section X animal, does so at their own risk.