Horse Emergency Preparedness: Documents That Get Your Horse Back (2026 Guide)

By Brian Bickell, who raises paint and quarter horses at Bickell Ranches in Stillwater, Oklahoma. He built HorseBook's document scanning feature after watching horse owners scramble for paperwork during Oklahoma tornado evacuations.

In January 2025, the Los Angeles wildfires burned tens of thousands of acres and displaced thousands of horses within hours. Evacuation facilities were overwhelmed. Horses arrived without identification. Owners arrived without paperwork. And the question that kept coming up at every fairground gate was the same one: Can you prove this is your horse?

Your binder doesn't help if it burned with the barn.

This guide is about the documents and records that get your horse into an evacuation facility, prove your ownership, and bring your horse home after a disaster. Keep them in a waterproof grab bag at the barn, and keep digital copies on your phone.

Educational, not an evacuation plan for your operation. Your county emergency management office, extension agent, and vet are the right sources for region-specific guidance. Use this as a starting checklist for the paperwork piece.

In This Guide

• The Documents You Need Ready
• Why Each Document Serves a Different Purpose
• Microchipping
• The Digital Backup
• Build Your Emergency Plan

The Documents You Need Ready

FEMA, the Humane Society, and every state emergency management agency recommend the same core list. Here's what to have in your emergency go bag — a waterproof envelope or binder stored where you can grab it in minutes.

1. Proof of Ownership

This is the single most important document in a disaster. After an evacuation, when hundreds of horses end up at the same fairground, proof of ownership is what gets your horse back. Without it, you may face a legal dispute — or lose the animal entirely.

Keep available:

• Bill of sale — the strongest legal proof of ownership (see our buying and selling guide for what a proper bill of sale includes)
• Registration papers (breed association certificate)
• Brand inspection certificate (in western states, this functions as a title document)
• Any documentation linking you to the horse — purchase receipts, insurance policies

2. Current Coggins Test

A Coggins test is required for entry at virtually every evacuation facility, fairground, and emergency shelter that accepts horses. If your Coggins is expired, the shelter can turn your horse away at the gate.

Kansas State University's Veterinary Health Center recommends that every horse maintain a current negative Coggins "should the need to evacuate arise" — regardless of whether the horse normally travels or shows.

3. Vaccination Records

Evacuation facilities full of stressed horses from multiple properties create prime conditions for disease transmission. Most shelters require proof of current vaccinations — at minimum, core vaccines (tetanus, Eastern/Western encephalomyelitis, West Nile, rabies). See our vaccination guide for the full schedule.

4. Current Medications and Dosages

An emergency veterinarian who has never seen your horse needs to know what the animal is taking, at what doses, and on what schedule. Include known drug allergies or sensitivities. Update this list after every vet visit. For guidance on what to track, see our veterinary records guide.

5. Veterinary Contact Information

Your primary vet's name, address, and phone. The nearest equine emergency hospital with address. An emergency medical authorization release — a written document that permits another person to authorize treatment on your behalf if you're unreachable.

6. Insurance Information

Policy number, insurer name, and the 24-hour claims hotline. Most equine mortality policies require notification within 24 hours of an incident. You will not remember this number during a crisis.

7. Identification Photos

At least ten current photos of each horse:

• All four sides (left, right, front, rear)
• Face close-up
• Close-ups of all markings, brands, scars, and whorls
• At least one photo of you with the horse — helps establish the ownership relationship

Update photos annually or whenever markings change (winter coat vs. summer coat can look dramatically different).

8. Written Physical Description

A detailed narrative for each horse: breed, color, sex, age, height, markings (including location and shape), scars, cowlicks or whorls, brands, tattoos, and microchip number.

This is what search teams and shelter workers use to match a found horse to its owner when the animal has no halter, no tag, and no handler.

9. Emergency Contacts

Phone numbers for: family, barn manager, neighbors who can help load and haul, farrier, local animal control, and your county's emergency management office. Program these into your phone AND print them on paper in the go bag — your phone's battery won't last forever in an emergency.

Why Each Document Serves a Different Purpose

The documents above serve three distinct functions:

Facility access. Coggins and vaccination records are your admission ticket. Without them, your horse may be turned away or quarantined separately from the general population — assuming the facility has quarantine capacity at all during a major event.

Identification and reunification. Photos, physical descriptions, and microchip numbers are how you get your horse back if you're separated. After Hurricane Katrina, a Fritz Institute survey found that 44% of people who refused to evacuate did so because of their animals — a finding that led directly to the federal PETS Act of 2006. Proper documentation makes it possible to send horses ahead with confidence that they can be reclaimed.

Legal protection. Bills of sale, registration papers, and brand certificates prove ownership when disputes arise in the chaos following a disaster.

Microchipping

An ISO 11784/11785 compliant microchip — a rice-grain-sized transponder implanted in the nuchal ligament of the neck — provides permanent, tamper-proof identification. Each chip carries a unique 15-digit number linked to a registration database.

During natural disasters, scanning for microchips is the fastest way to reunite displaced horses with their owners. Unlike halter tags, painted markings, or neck bands, a microchip can't fall off, wash away, or be removed.

The critical caveat: A microchip is only useful if the registration is current. Update your contact information in the database whenever it changes. An unregistered microchip is just a piece of glass in your horse's neck.

USEF will require microchipping for all competition horses effective December 2026. Even if you don't compete, microchipping is one of the best investments in your horse's safety.

The Digital Backup

Every source reviewed for this guide — FEMA, the Humane Society, CDFA, university extension programs, and equine emergency organizations — recommends the same thing: maintain digital copies of everything in addition to your physical go bag.

Here's why:

• Barn fires destroy physical documents at the same time they create the emergency
• Flood water damages paper even in "waterproof" containers
• You may not be able to reach the barn to grab the go bag
• Cloud-accessible records are available from any device, anywhere

This is one of the strongest use cases for a digital record-keeping system. In HorseBook, every document (Coggins, vaccination records, registration papers, photos, medical records) is stored in the cloud and accessible from your phone. If your barn burns at 2 AM, your records survive.

Store digital copies in at least two places:

1. A horse record app or cloud drive accessible from your phone
2. An encrypted USB drive in your evacuation kit (backup for when there's no cell service)

Send copies to a trusted friend or family member outside your geographic area — so they survive even a regional disaster.

Build Your Emergency Plan

Beyond documents, your plan should identify:

• Two evacuation destinations (primary and alternate) with confirmed willingness to accept horses
• Your transportation resources and a backup hauler's contact information
• Evacuation routes with alternates for road closures
• Who on your contact list can help load horses if you're not home
• Where your go bag is stored — everyone who manages the barn should know

Post a laminated summary of the plan in the barn office, the tack room, and your trailer. Practice trailer loading regularly so it's not a crisis-day skill.

If you'll be hauling across state lines during an evacuation, know that most states waive CVI requirements during declared emergencies — but Coggins is still enforced at most shelters. See our interstate transport guide for what's normally required.

The Bottom Line

Emergencies don't announce themselves. A wildfire, a flood, a barn fire. By the time you need these documents, it's too late to gather them.

Build your go bag this weekend. It takes an hour. Photograph every horse from every angle. Scan your Coggins, vaccination records, and registration papers into HorseBook. Write out the physical descriptions and medication lists. Put the physical copies in a waterproof container at the barn and the digital copies on your phone.

The time you invest now is the time you won't have later.

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Brian Bickell is the founder of HorseBook and raises paint and quarter horses at Bickell Ranches in Stillwater, Oklahoma.