HORSE Sport Ireland’s CEO Denis Duggan has given a commitment to breeders that passports will be turned around within four to six weeks following the hard launch this week of Horse Source, HSI’s new online system for registering horses.

Long delays in processing passports have been a constant frustration of breeders who, since May, could not apply for a passport while the data from the old system was being transferred to Horse Source. While an initial date of mid-June did not materialise, breeders have this week begun using the new e-passporting website.

Asked for a commitment on timelines for breeders registering their 2024 foals, Duggan said: “For a breeder that applies through Horsesource.ie, where the sire and the dam are already DNA tested, the turnaround time will be between four to six weeks. That’s the guarantee we can give.”

Failure

Duggan said: “I understand the frustrations, the service hasn’t been up to standard, and we acknowledge the failings. The beauty of the creation of the whole e-passport system is that, it has made us hold a mirror up to ourselves, to look at our own processes internally and see where we are failing. We have failed, and hopefully with Horse Source being launched, our own service improves, it’s built very much with that in mind.”

Challenged that breeders were driven away from the Irish Sport Horse Studbook, despite wanting the all-important green book, due to the difficulties in getting their foals registered, Duggan said they did not experience a notable drop in registrations last year, adding: “Breeders need to make their own decisions. If a breeder decides to use an alternative studbook, we respect that.

“The one particular type of breeder that I think needs to be very conscious of the decisions they make is the Irish Draught breeder. I was recently at a meeting organised by the registered stallion Owners’ Association, and a number of stallion owners, who assumed that you could register an Irish Draught in any stud book; like the Connnemara Pony or the Kerry Bog pony, those three breeds in particular are eligible for the ACRES scheme. If you’re not registered in those studbooks, you’re not eligible for those payments.”

Restoring confidence

Asked if HSI had a bit of work to do to restore the confidence of breeders, Duggan replied: “I think when they see it in operation, it’ll go a long way to restoring that. If breeders ultimately want quick passport turnaround time, if we can deliver that through this new system, I think that will help restore their confidence. The DNA issues that we had last year, that were experienced across all studbooks that were involved in the transitions to SNPs, none of that was ideal.”

Asked why the migration of systems happened in the middle of the breeding season, Duggan explained it was to meet the requirements of the funding from the Department of Agriculture’s Brexit Adjustment Reserve Fund. The deadline was July 1st and Duggan said they did meet it as Horse Source has been live since the end of June. “Over the last week or 10 days, over 300 breeders have used it in what we’ve been calling a soft launch internally.”

The CEO said there are 120 foal passports still outstanding from 2023 and those breeders have been contacted.

• See page 73 for more information on Horse Source.