The NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) wants feedback to gauge interest and support for a simple NSW horse identification scheme after NSW Police raised the initiative.

DPI spokesman Peter Day said there were many potential benefits  but the initiative would need support from the horse industry.

“It could improve disease control and traceability, reduce horse theft and misrepresentation, and benefit horse welfare,” Mr Day said.

“Rider and handler safety could be improved by reducing misrepresentation of a horse’s history and potentially enhancing purchaser information.

“Horse attendance could be more easily recorded at events where horses gather in numbers and pose a higher than normal biosecurity risk.”

Mr Day did not propose recording property to property movements, as required with the National Livestock Identification System for cattle.

Currently the requirement in NSW is that horse owners must obtain a property identification code but some properties with horses don’t have this code.

​“It would be a big boost to the biosecurity capability of NSW to know where horses are located in the event of a flood, fire or emergency disease outbreak, such as the Equine Influenza epidemic in 2007,” Mr Day said.

He said the survey took less than 15 minutes to complete and was open until December 1: dpi.nsw.gov.au/animals-and-livestock/horses