As you well know, the horse world is complex and demanding, and that is even before you get to the paperwork of registering both a human and equine athlete for this wonderful sport! That is where EC’s Coordinators of Sport Licences and Technical Services, myself and Katie Heier, are here to assist you, along with Kelsey McDonell, Administrator of Sport Licenses and Competitions.
We cover everything from sport licences, horse recordings and pony measurement cards to FEI passports and registrations. Whether you are stepping out for the first time at an EC sanctioned Bronze level competition or need to ensure that your passports and registrations are up to date for the next FEI championships, you’ll be sure to speak with one of us along the way.
In 2019, the Sport Licences team received approximately 6,000 phone calls (not including outgoing calls or calls made directly to our personal work extensions) and reviewed over 2,000 horse recordings, and I sent approximately 6,000 emails. From November 2019 to now, I have already processed 300 FEI passports!
One thing that might not be well known is the number of quality control checks that a FEI passport – which is the mandatory identification document for horses competing in most FEI events – goes through before it is shipped back to the horse’s owner. All athlete, owner and horse data must be aligned across the EC database and hard drives, as well as the FEI database. When a passport is received, it is booked into a log and reviewed from the first to last page, which includes triple-checking microchip and registration numbers, verifying equine influenza vaccinations, printing stickers on paper that comes directly from Switzerland, scanning and stamping all pages with data, submitting to the FEI for review, and finally, prior to shipping it back, I test the passport against the owner’s MyEC profile to ensure that all of the data has saved successfully. It is then assigned a shipping tracking number for its journey back home. My goal is to ensure that once the passport leaves my hands, it does not have to come back until it needs to be revalidated or the horse has been sold to a new owner.
We understand that registration is about as fun as filing taxes, so we work closely with Pavel Robinson, EC’s Programmer Analyst, to improve the process. We provide him with any feedback received concerning our database or MyEC platform, as well as troubleshoot any issues that our stakeholders may have to make the process less daunting and more efficient.
The Sport Licences and Technical Services portfolio is closely intertwined with every other program EC offers. Whether it’s equine medication control or the Return to Sport concussion protocol, the documents we process play a significant role in fair and safe sport.
Beyond this, we receive general inquiries on every topic imaginable, which means that our jobs also involve plenty of research! Your questions are always welcome – I’ve processed hundreds of passports and still have to reach out to the FEI and various breed registries for assistance from time to time, so I know firsthand that things can be confusing! Feel free to reach out to us anytime, no matter how seemingly small the question may be.
Thank you, and all the best to everyone and our beloved equine friends.
Sincerely,
Anjelikka Ouellette
Coordinator, Sport Licences and Technical Services
aouellette@equestrian.ca