Rules

Click here for BRC Handbook 2024  Valid from 1 January 2024

Click here for Riding Hat Rules 2024

Click here for Body Protector Rules 2024

Equine Influenza Rules

Members competing at Qualifier and Championship Competitions are required to have a Passport containing a valid flu vac record for their horse.  Entries must be made by the Club Team Manager using the horse’s name as it appears on the passport.  For Area Qualifiers, organisers will check entries against horses registered on the Area 17 Flu Vac Database maintained by Susie Pool (BVRC) – details on Contacts page.  At Championships, competitors will not be admitted to the showground unless they are able to produce a compliant record of all flu vaccinations, and may be sent home if errors are found.

To help you check your vaccinations in advance, the following is a summary of the rules (see also BRC Handbook).  NOTE:  There are different intervals stipulated for vaccination courses which were started BEFORE 1 January 2024 or AFTER.  Details of the required intervals between vaccinations are shown in the table below:

1st Vaccination (V1) BEFORE 1 January 2024 ON/AFTER 1 January 2024
2nd Vaccination (V2) 21-92 days after V1 21-60 days after V1
3rd Vaccination (V3) 150-215 days after V2 120-180 days after V2
Booster Not more than 1 year apart Not more than 1 year apart
Flu Vac Checker Flu Vac Checker

The minimum vaccinations before competing are V1 and V2.

Boosters must be given within one calendar year.  (Although this will be 366 days in leap year, the BHS recommendation is 365 days max.)

No vaccination to have been given on the day of a competition/entry to championship stables, or on any of the 6 days previous, ie a horse vaccinated on a Monday will not be eligible to compete/enter Championships stables until the following Monday.

Provided the Primary (V1) and Secondary (V2) vaccinations are correct, errors to boosters BEFORE 1 January 5 years ago (eg for competitions in 2024, before 1 January 2019) may be ignored.  Any vaccinations (V1, V2, V3, Annual boosters) given AFTER 1 January 5 years ago must all be correct.

If your horse’s history does not comply, then you will need to restart with primary & secondary vaccinations, remembering that the last one must be not less than a clear week before the day of the competition/entry to the competition stables.

The Passport must clearly identify your horse, including a Microchip number.  Lack of a microchip means the horse is ineligible to compete at BRC Qualifiers/Championships.

Submissions for the Area Flu Vac Database

Photos of the pages of the Passport listed below should be compiled in a Word document and emailed to Susie Pool via the Club Team Manager.  Team managers are asked to check that all the necessary pages have been included, whole pages have been captured and the contents in focus and legible.  The vaccinations page must include the vet’s signature and stamp.

  • Name and Passport Number (UELN)
  • Diagram
  • Description
  • Microchip Number (should be on one of the above pages)
  • Primary, Secondary and 1st Booster vaccinations.  It helps if the latest re-start is clearly identified.
  • All Annual vaccinations to date

Example Passport            Passport Template

Please save files with the following name format “Club Horse Name Passport to dd.mm.yy” using the date of the most recent vaccination.   For subsequent updates, only a photo of the page(s) with the recent vaccination(s) need to be sent to Susie referencing the Club and horse’s name.

Currently, BRC only require Annual Vaccinations, however, for future reference:

Understanding the “6-month” Rule

There is a lot of confusion about the “6 month” vac.  Although booster vaccinations MUST be given within one calendar year, or face a re-start, the “6-month” vaccination is only required by certain organisations who govern competitions (eg BE & BRC, in normal circumstances).  Their requirement is that the latest vaccination must have been given WITHIN 6 months 21 days of the competition you wish to go to.  So, this one can be left for anything up to 12 months if you are not competing with those organisations.  Missing one of these does not ever require a full re-start.  It DOES NOT have to be done WITHIN 6 months of the latest vaccination to remain eligible; it entirely depends on the competition date.

In short:

  • Annual flu vacs are counted 12 months from the last vaccination and failure to do this in time results in a full re-start.
  • For the “6-month” rule, count BACKWARDS from the competition date, and if the most recent vac was longer ago than 6 months 21 days, a booster will be required.