What is The 826 Equine Studbooks Association and What Does It Do
The main role of the 826 ESA is to represent the interests of its member studbooks to official bodies including DEFRA, the British Horse Foundation, the National Equine Forum, the Central Prefix Register, NEWC and of course the British Horse Council. However, it always encourages all of its members to interact with these bodies both individually and severally as well, particularly in the case of official DEFRA consultations. As its members are the studbooks themselves, it has no direct interface with the public, which is why it is quite possible that you have never heard of us, but even so, our opinions and judgements are widely sought after in our sector.
For clarification, the 826 in the name refers to the UK country code at the start of the UELN of every equine passport issued in the UK and the studbook status of our members indicates that they can issue pedigree zootechnic pages in the passports that they issue. Its origins are in the old BHS Horse and Pony Breeds Committee and it was created in 2017 after the BHS revised its committee structure to reflect more its welfare and competition interest. So, if you own an equine with an UELN number begins with 826 and includes a verified pedigree then it will almost certainly have been issued by one of our member studbooks. This is because there are currently about 50 studbook PIOs recognised by DEFRA and of these 40 are members of the 826 ESA. Those that are not tend to be based in the devolved nations and deal directly with the branches of DEFRA in those nations.
Usually our concerns and reports might seem a little out of phase with the others in the UK equine breeding industry as our members have a time frame that lasts from the conception of a foal in one year to its final registration in the autumn of the next, making us chiefly concerned with events / developments in the previous 18 months or the future 18 months at any one time. However, if anyone would like to get in contact with us to learn more about what we do please look at the relevant pages of this web site.