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What is a UELN and where can I find it?
What is a UELN and where can I find it?

Details about what a Universal Equine Life number is and where it can be found

Lauren Ball avatar
Written by Lauren Ball
Updated over 8 months ago

What is it?

A Unique Life Number (UELN) is a unique number issued to an equine by a Breed Society when registering an equine in their studbook or register. The UELN remains consistent for the equines lifetime and is a way of identifying the equine.

A UELN is typically a 15-digit number that identifies the country of birth and the studbook or breed society that issued the number. The first three digits represent the country code, the next three digits relate to the Breed Society.

What does it look like?

  • The first 3 digits identify the country in which the equine was born. This follows the ISO-3166 country code e.g. Canada is 124 and the US is 840.

  • The next 3 digits will identify the studbook that initially registered the foal. This is normally a studbook or breed society. If you have a thoroughbred horse these digits can be the alpha code of the country e.g. for Ireland its 372IRE

  • The remaining 9 digits will be a random set of numbers

Where can I find my equines UELN?

If your equine has been issued with an UELN it will be with any official documentation you have received with your equine from the studbook or breed society who issues UELNs.

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This information is provided by Equine Register for the purposes of basic information sharing does it look like?and guidance. However, any information provided cannot and must not be relied upon and independent opinion should be sought.

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