Horse Sport Ireland Horse Source/E-Passport Update

In the 16 weeks, since the new HorseSource E-Passport was launched in mid-July, Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) has received 5,630 online applications for foal passports.

This equates to almost 75% of the total number of passports that were issued for the 2023 period. The take up off the new system has far exceeded what had been expected, based on other examples within the industry.

The current position in relation to passports* is that 5,630 applications have been received and foal kits have been issued to 95% of all applicants.

About 1,485 foal kits are currently with breeders awaiting the return of marking charts and DNA samples, which is equivalent to more than one quarter (26%) of all applications. A total of 1,026 DNA samples are currently in the laboratory for testing. The testing period for each DNA sample is 19 working days, which is almost a full calendar month.

Currently, 1,842 passport applications have completed DNA testing, which is equivalent to about one-third of all applications received. A total of 927 passports have been issued to breeders, which is about half of the applications that have completed the DNA testing process.

The other half – some 915 applications – have been returned from the laboratory and these applications are awaiting quality testing and validation checks before passports can be printed. The DNA for these 915 applications only came back to HSI in recent days, and all of these passports should be posted within the next one to two weeks.

So far this year, HSI has processed a total of 2,316 horse passports. Aside from the 927 passports that have been processed and dispatched via HorseSource, a further 450 passports were issued earlier this year under the old system, and 939 change of ownership passports have also been issued this year.

Based on the experience of similar online systems, which took several years to achieve 50% user adoption, Horse Sport Ireland had expected that about 30% of breeders would avail of HorseSource during its first year of operation.

However, in reality, the take-up of the new online system has been phenomenal, and this has meant that HorseSource has in part been a victim of its own success in terms of the hugely rapid adoption rates by users.

“In retrospect, based on what had happened with other online systems, we significantly underestimated the number of breeders that would migrate instantly to HorseSource,” said Horse Sport Ireland Chief Executive Denis Duggan. “While breeders are to be commended for moving to the new system in such huge numbers, this has had an impact on the operation of HorseSource.”

As HSI moved to the new system over the summer, it needed to stop accepting any passport applications under the old system to allow for its entire database of 500,000 horse records to be migrated to HorseSource. This pause in the application system, which was essential, created a backlog of applications, added to the overall volume of applications in the first few weeks of the system.

There has also been a very material change in the time that breeders have taken to return marking charts this year. Within the passport system, a marking chart and DNA kit is issued to each breeder, and they have to arrange to have a vet complete the marking chart, insert a microchip into the foal, take hair samples for DNA, and return those to HSI.

Last year, the average time that breeders took to complete these steps was 134 days, and a similar timeframe also applied in previous years. This year, the estimated time to complete these steps has reduced dramatically to 32 days.

“Breeders are returning marking charts and DNA samples four times faster this year than in previous years, which has been a fundamental change in behaviour,” according to Mr Duggan. “As this element of the passport system is an entirely offline process, it was difficult to have foreseen this radical change in timing.”

“We are hugely appreciative that breeders have returned the required documentation much faster this year than in any other year, but unfortunately this, coupled with the unexpectedly high take up of HorseSource, and an initial backlog of applications created by the changeover has slowed the process, for which we sincerely apologise. Had charts and samples been returned in the same manner as all previous years, the system would have had a steady flow of applications working through the process rather than a huge surge.”

“Our team is currently working tirelessly to issue new passports to breeders, and we currently have staff working at weekends and in the evenings to ensure that we can issue new foal passports to breeders as quickly as possible.”

HSI is fully aware of the frustration that customers have had over recent weeks in relation to communicating with the organisation in relation to passport applications. We apologise for delays in responding and are working to improve matters.

“We acknowledge the concerns of customers and are making every effort to manage the current volume of passport applications as quickly as possible, without compromising the integrity of the system,” Mr Duggan said. “In retrospect, our initial view at launch in terms of expected turnaround times was overly optimistic, particularly given the time needed for DNA testing and regrettably, this created an unrealistic expectation in terms of overall processing speeds.”

A small number of passports that have been issued to the breeders of Irish Draught Horses were incorrectly printed without full classification details. HSI is aware of the issue and has contacted the impacted breeders in question.

Breeders can either return their passport for updating or, if they wish, wait until the time of sale and the updated details will be automatically included when the passport is returned to HSI by the buyer for a change of ownership.

(* Data from Wednesday, November 7)