Due to Brexit, the European (EU) Breeding Regulation no longer applies in the United Kingdom. The Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has drawn up its own rules for passport-issuing organisations in England, Wales and Scotland. Equines in Northern Ireland are not affected by this change.
Historically, regulated changes to passports for Irish-bred horses, such as upgrading HSI foal identity documents to full pedigree passports, naming and transfers of ownership, always had to be completed by Horse Sport Ireland (HSI).
The passport would then be sent to the IDHS (GB) passport administrators for overstamping. This is a legal requirement, so that this information can be uploaded to the Central Equine Database. Up until recently, owners of Irish-bred horses had to send the passport to Horse Sport Ireland first, and then to us.
As a result of Brexit, no passport-issuing organisation in Great Britain is permitted to process any passports for animals living outside Great Britain. This is reciprocal; i.e. Horse Sport Ireland is not allowed to process passports for animals living outside the island of Ireland.
On 10 June, we received definitive guidance on the procedures for updating Horse Sport Ireland passports if the horses are living in the UK. We can now offer the following services for those horses:
- Naming, re-naming (Irish passports only), changes of ownership, addition of microchip numbers and other minor changes.
- Overstamping: If you have imported an Irish Draught or Irish Draught Sport Horse from the Republic of Ireland (or any other country outside the UK), you MUST ensure that the passport is over-stamped by a Passport Issuing Organisation (PIO) in the UK, so that the animal’s record can be included on the Central Equine Database.
- Duplicate passports where the original is lost, stolen or damaged
- Upgrading Irish foal papers (identity documents) to a full passport once DNA parentage testing has been confirmed. If you want an Irish full passport for your Irish-bred foal or young horse, please arrange to have this work done before you import the animal. Once it is in Great Britain, it must have an IDHS (GB) full passport.
The fee structure will be kept under review, but is in line with the fees for passport services for British-bred horses. Thank you for your patience while we were waiting for guidance from Defra and DAFM.
If you have any questions about this, please email passports@idhsgb.org.uk or contact Heather Chaplin via the inspections mailbox at inspections@idhs-administrator
Passport and registration information
Please direct registration enquiries and send IDHS (GB) passports, registration applications/transfer/over-stamps for GB- registered horses to:
Irish Draught passports, Holme House, Dale, Ainstable, Carlisle CA4 9RH
Tel. 01768 870 523. Email address:passports@idhsgb.org.uk
Office hours are Monday-Friday 09.00 – 17.00 hrs.