SPORT horse foals must be registered within six months of birth or before December 31st on the year of their birth. If you have a foal with recorded pedigree there is slightly more to include in the registration process, in comparison to a foal without fully recorded pedigree.

For your foal to be eligible for either the Irish Sport Horse or the Irish Draught Horse studbooks the sire and the dam of the foal must be registered in the Irish Horse Register. If your foal is not eligible for either studbook there is a process to gain a non-pedigree passport.

Breeders must send their correctly completed covering certificate to Horse Sport Ireland, who will then automatically issue the registered owner of the dam with a foal kit. There is a simple three-step process for registering your foal.

Step 1: Call your vet

When you receive your foaling kit you will need call your veterinary surgeon. The foal kit contains four things – a marking chart, DNA hair sample bag, return envelopes and an information leaflet.

Your veterinary surgeon must fill out the marking chart for your foal, they will also microchip your foal and attach the microchip bar code to the marking chart. Your foal should only be microchipped using a Horse Sport Ireland microchip, these microchips are issued to veterinary surgeons for animals who will be registered in the Irish Horse Register.

Step 2: Send the marking sheet to HSI

When your veterinary surgeon has completed your foal’s marking chart, you must return this to Horse Sport Ireland. You must also include the correct fee. The initial fee for registering a foal is €80 for IHR members or €117 for non-members.

Step 3: Receive your passport

The final step of registering your foal is to receive your Irish Sport Horse studbook passport. This will be sent to you once HSI receive the correctly filled out marking chart, correct fee and the DNA result from Weatherbys. The passport will be sent to the registered owner of the dam.

Non-pedigree registration

If you want to register a foal who has a non-registered sire or dam and thus is not eligible for the Irish Sport Horse or the Irish Draught Horse studbook, you can obtain a non-pedigree passport for them.

The steps for registering a non-pedigree foal are very similar to the steps for registering a pedigree foal. Your veterinary surgeon should complete the marking chart and microchip your foal. This marking chart, microchip barcode and correct fee should be sent to Horse Sport Ireland.

There is no DNA testing required for non-pedigree foals so once you return the marking chart and fee, Horse Sport Ireland will issue the owner of the mare with the passport.