THE Northern Irish Horse Board (NIHB) have told Irish Horse World they would never knowingly issue a passport to an animal already registered, following an RTÉ Investigates programme aired on Wednesday night, which highlighted alleged criminality and fraud in the industry.

Cases of horses being issued with a second identity document from the NIHB were highlighted in the programme. In one case, a horse called Finnisk Sally turned up in Sweden with a new passport, new name and described as four years younger. A spokesperson for the NIHB said they are taking the matter “extremely seriously”.