Central Equine

Information System

Case Study

Student Pack

Released: 11/01/2013; Updated: 12/02/2013

CEIS Student Pack

Contents

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 3

Scope of interaction ................................................................................................................................ 3

Case study ............................................................................................................................................... 4

Questions ................................................................................................................................................ 5

Information sharing ................................................................................................................................ 7

Poster production ................................................................................................................................... 7

Presentations ...................................................................................................................................... 8

Appendix 1: NED statistics .................................................................................................................... 10

Appendix 2: NED services ..................................................................................................................... 11

Appendix 3: Additional information ..................................................................................................... 12

Suggested documents ....................................................................................................................... 12

Suggested websites ........................................................................................................................... 13

Appendix 4: CEIS Case Study Judging Form .......................................................................................... 14

Document updates................................................................................................................................ 15

Update 1: Tuesday 12th February 2013 ............................................................................................. 15

Central Equine Information System Case Study Student Pack

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Introduction

The contract between the National Equine Database (NED) and Defra to supply database

management services has now ended. Following an e-tendering process for a replacement

contract, a cost/benefit analysis of bids meant that no new contract was awarded and it has

been confirmed that no further funding from Defra is available. However, Local Authority

enforcement bodies support the possibility of a new central equine information system in

order to be able to enforce passport legislation more easily and some Passport Issuing

Organisations (PIOs) have said that they are missing NED, which was central to their ability

to carry out their duties as passport issuers. The Equine Disease Coalition1 is supportive of a

central information system which is able to record equine owner location on a more robust

basis. They would support a mechanism to enable more frequent updating of such

information, crucial in the event of a disease outbreak, to enable effective communication

and information exchange to help inform owners of how to protect their horses.

Scope of interaction

This case study is part of a larger integrated equestrian sector information collection,

scoping and consultation project. The organisations which have volunteered to coordinate

this project will be in touch with Government, national bodies, professional and

membership organisations. The purpose of this case study is to allow you to contribute to

the larger project by way of collecting the views of your fellow students and a diversity of

horse people and local businesses and enterprises.

1 The Equine Disease Coalition was founded in 2010, and is made up of representatives from the Animal Health

Trust, British Equine Veterinary Association, Cambridge University. Defra, Horse Trust, RSCPA and World

Horse Welfare. The Coalition focuses on key areas of risk that threaten the health and welfare of the UK horse

population, with the aim of enabling the equine sector to use its knowledge and expertise to take the lead in this

area, whilst working closely with relevant authorities (including Government Departments and Agencies).

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Case study

The National Equine Database (NED) was live from 2008 to 2012. Its main function was to

process the equine and owner data for horse passports issued by the 75 Passport Issuing

Organisations (PIOs) in the UK (see Appendix 1 for NED statistics). NED was paid by Defra to

do this. In addition, many of the PIOs, which were also studbooks (registering pedigree

horses) supplied their pedigree data to NED on a voluntary basis so that it was available for

the public to use. The horse identification (ID) data, coupled with the pedigree data and the

competition results supplied by the UK competition disciplines, made NED a useful online

reference source for this combination of information. NED also offered other services,

which are detailed in Appendix 2.

However, valuable as this may seem, the demand for this data was not sufficient to enable

NED to continue to operate when the Defra contract ended, meaning that NED was not able

to survive on the sales of equine ID, pedigree and competition data alone. The number of

regular users to NED over the four years did have an upward trend, but NED’s business

model based on the public sale of equine ID, pedigree and competition data (and the other

information and services detailed in Appendix 2) was not viable.

Under EU Regulation, if Defra approves any new central equine information system, the

PIOs will be required once again to submit only equine ID and owner name and address

data. All other agreements for data exchange would need to be individually negotiated with

upwards of 80 organisations.

Any new central equine information system will need to be relevant to all those who own or

keep horses, including carers and riders. Therefore, this case study refers to a “horse

person” or “horse people”. This term encompasses horse owners, keepers, carers and

riders. In addition, any new system will be subject to relevant legislation including the Data

Protection Act 1998. Related passport and equine identification legislation can be seen on

the Defra website here, and the GOV.UK website here.

It is worth noting at the current time that the Coalition Government takes a “Better

Regulation” position. This means that the introduction of new legislation covering the areas

impacting on a central equine information system is unlikely. Therefore, recommendations

should not be based on an understanding that new regulation is possible, as this is

unrealistic. More information can be found here.

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Questions

What could a central equine information system be used for? The term “information

system” is used deliberately, it could be different to and much more expansive than a

“database”. (Please don’t confine your thinking to what NED did – what could a new

system offer? In this context – THINK BIG!)

o Identify other sources of data that could be collected alongside the ID data in

order to ensure the system serves a wider purpose (bear in mind that this

information may need to be negotiated by separate agreement and its use may

be subject to relevant legislation);

o Consider products and services the information system could offer which you

believe would have appeal to all horse people and which they may, or may not,

be prepared to pay for. Please consider the type of information that is already

available on equine websites at zero charge. This may mean that horse people

would not be willing to pay for such information on any new system if it is

available free elsewhere. However, a new system could offer products or

services not available elsewhere, what could these be? You must consider

whether any suggestions you make comply with the relevant legislation.

Suggest ways in which a new central equine information system could be structured to

support itself financially in the absence of any central funding. There is no need to

provide a detailed costing, or to take into account the build and running costs of an

information system, please just suggest ways in which it could generate revenue which

could help it to sustain itself.

Identify, specifically, what such a system would need to offer to compel people to visit

frequently. What would make you, as a horse person, visit such a system frequently in

the way you might visit Facebook?

Could the system be of use to any professional or business organisations and if so, what

for and would they be prepared to pay for it? Confine your study to small or local

businesses. National organisations will be surveyed separately.

What should the user interface (look and feel of a website) for a new central system look

like? What should it include to make it appealing for regular users?

How could a new central equine information system interact with social media platforms

such as Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest?

What could the new central equine information system learn from other projects, for

example the Dogs Life Project or the Blue Cross’s National Equine Health Survey?

(Please see Appendix 3 for other projects that could be considered – but note that the list

provided is NOT exhaustive.)

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How could a new central equine information system appeal to and support the breeding

sector of the equine industry? (Please bear in mind that pedigree and performance data

would need to be supplied under individual voluntary agreements by studbooks and

competition organising bodies, it would not be supplied routinely. Please also bear in

mind the size of the breeding community in relation to the size of the equine owning

community in general.)

One of the challenges of the former NED was related to how up to date owner

information was. For example, a horse could change hands many times before the PIO

which issued the original passport was notified. What might motivate people to notify a

PIO, or a central information system, when they bought or sold a horse?

Do you believe that horse people may use a central system to log information about

their horses such as vaccination dates, location, photos, horse blogs and social horse

related information sharing? What might make them want to do this?

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Information sharing

All of the information gathered through this case study will be made available to those who

are involved in understanding the possibilities for a new central equine information system.

Where applicable, this information may form part of a business plan that will be presented

to Defra.

All participants will need to agree to willingly share their ideas with any bodies involved in

scoping a central equine information system which will be run for the benefit of the equine

industry. Therefore, upon submission of their poster, each student and lecturer will be

asked to sign a form stating this. This form will be circulated in early March.

Poster production

Each poster should contain:

The name of the institution;

The names of all students included within the group; and

The name of the lecturer overseeing student participation in the project.

Each poster should be formatted in the following way:

A1 size

Landscape (594mm high x 841mm wide) or portrait (841mm high by 594mm wide)

orientation;

Title text should be 2.5cm high;

General text should be 1cm high;

Sections should be used within the poster, e.g. title, message, introduction,

methods, results and conclusions; and

Sections should be numbered to indicate the order in which they should be read.

Useful guidelines for the production of posters can be found on the British Society of Animal

Science (BSAS) website here. Where there are differences between the guidance offered in

this document and that offered in the BSAS guidelines, this document should take priority.

Posters can be produced in Microsoft PowerPoint, or other software. However, each poster

must then be converted into a pdf file for submission by your institution.

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A handout may also be included to support your poster. This document should run to a

maximum of two sides of A4, and should also be submitted in pdf format.

The file name of each poster and any accompanying handout should be formatted in the

following way:

Institution name, followed by the surnames of the students in alphabetical order,

and then either “poster” or “handout”. For example, if Alex Smith, Ben Jones, Julia

Fry and Eva Laurie, from Shire College, made a submission to the project the file

names for their poster and handout would be:

ShireFryJonesLaurieSmithPoster.pdf and ShireFryJonesLaurieSmithHandout.pdf.

Posters and handouts should be submitted by institutions by Friday 22nd March 2013.

Presentations

Each participating institution will select a group of students to present their results on either

Monday 8th or Tuesday 9th April 2013, at Stoneleigh Park. Three of these presentations will

be selected by the judging panel to present their results a second time to a panel of

representatives from the British Horse Industry Confederation, Defra and Equine Health and

Welfare Strategy Group (EHWS) on Tuesday 23rd April.

Presentations: Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th April 2013

Each participating institution will select one group of students to present their results at

Stoneleigh Park on Monday 8th or Tuesday 9th April 2013. Presentations will be 20 minutes

long, with 15 minutes for questioning by a panel of four people, and will be assessed using

the template found in Appendix 4.

Each group will be able to use PowerPoint (through their own laptop or one that will be

made available for them) and a flip chart. If any other audio visual aids are required, a

request should be made by the lead lecturer before Friday 22nd March.

Institutions will be allocated a “Session”, either morning or afternoon on a specific day

(Monday 8th or Tuesday 9th April), when their group of students will make their

presentation. The sessions will comprise of groups from three or four institutions; at the

beginning of each session a draw will take place to decide the order of the presentations.

The session allocation for each institution will be confirmed by Friday 22nd March.

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Presentations: Tuesday 23rd April 2013

Up to three of the presentations given at Stoneleigh on Monday 8th and Tuesday 9th April

will be selected to go forwards and present their results a second time to a panel of up to

eight people, including representatives from the British Horse Industry Confederation

(BHIC), Defra and the Equine Health and Welfare Strategy Group (EHWS), on Tuesday 23rd

April 2013. The location and timings of these presentations are to be confirmed.

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Appendix 1: NED statistics

In order to understand the size and scope of the equine sector in general, please

view the Suggested Documents section, Appendix 3.

Daily NED individual visitor figures when NED was live (between 2008 and 2012),

averaged at 330 unique visitors per day.

NED had 30,000 registered users, but frequent visitors represented a small

proportion of registered users (those who had registered online to use NED).

Frequent visitor figures had an upward trend.

Peaks in visitor figures occurred over Christmas and during the BEF Futurity.

Monday was the busiest day, while Saturday and Sunday were the quietest days.

Visitors were spilt 50%/50% between returning users and new users.

The average visitor time on the site was 7.5 minutes, with 13.5 pages per visit.

5%

28%

38%

24%

4% 1%

Registered users: age

Under 18 years of age

18 to 30 years of age

31 to 45 years of age

46 to 50 years of age

Over 60 years of age

Did not specify

91%

7%

2%

Registered users: gender

Female

Male

Did not specify

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Appendix 2: NED services

In addition to NEDs main function of processing the equine and owner data for horse

passports as well as collating the pedigree data and the competition results, NED’s online

functions included:

Passport checking to validate the existence of a bona fide equine passport prior to

purchase;

Pedigree and Performance data reports (this would not be available without

negotiation with relevant data suppliers);

National and regional equine distribution reports for business (not individual owner

information but numbers of horse owners in each postcode region to enable, for

example, business planning);

Reminders for vaccinations etc., NED sent a reminder when treatment was due;

Lost and stolen. NED contained a facility to record a horse as stolen or missing on

loan (once the owner had demonstrated sufficient proof of ownership). NED had a

track record of providing assistance in a number of instances where owners were

reunited with their lost or stolen horses. This service was operated in partnership

with Horsewatch Alliance;

NEDLinks. A piece of web code was provided to be embedded in the advert of a

horse for sale to enable potential buyers to check it out on NED for free.

Once a user was registered with NED, basic data (horse name, age height, colour and the

name of the organisation supplying that information) was available on NED free of charge.

Additional data was available on a points basis. Points were purchased in bundles (e.g. £3,

£5, £10) and these points were used on available data reports. Each report had a points

value and points could be topped up online at any time. Notifications were sent when the

points value dropped below a threshold.

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Appendix 3: Additional information

Please note the lists below are not exhaustive and should be used for guidance only.

Suggested documents

BRITISH EQUESTRIAN TRADE ASSOCIATION, 2006. National Equestrian Survey 2005/06

Structural Report. Weatherby: BETA.

BRITISH EQUESTRIAN TRADE ASSOCIATON, 2011. National Equestrian Survey 2011

Structural Report. Weatherby: BETA.

BRITISH HORSE INDUSTRY CONFEDERATION, 2009. BHIC Briefing – Size and Scope of Equine

Sector. London: BHIC. Available from: http://www.bhic.co.uk/downloads/sizescope.pdf

[Accessed 21 December 2012].

BRITISH HORSE INDUSTRY CONFEDERATION, Defra, DCMS AND The Welsh Assembly

Government, 2005. Strategy for the Horse Industry in England and Wales. London: Defra.

[Product code PB11323] Available from: http://www.bhic.co.uk/downloads/full-strategy-

report.pdf and http://www.defra.gov.uk/publications/2011/03/29/pb11323-horse-strategy/

[Accessed 21 December 2012].

BRITISH HORSE INDUSTRY CONFEDERATION, Defra, National Assembly for Wales and

Scottish Executive, 2004. A report of research on the horse industry in Great Britain.

London: Defra. [Product code PB 9255] Available from:

http://www.bhic.co.uk/downloads/henley-report.pdf and

http://www.defra.gov.uk/publications/2011/03/29/pb9255-horse-research/ [Accessed 21

December 2012].

BRITISH HORSE INDUSTRY CONFEDERATION, Defra, National Assembly for Wales and

Scottish Executive, 2004. Joint research on the horse industry in Great Britain. London:

Defra. [Product code PB 9255a] Available from: http://archive.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-

pets/pets/horses/documents/bhic-leaflet.pdf [Accessed 21 December 2012].

BODEN, L. A., PARKIN, T. D. H., YATES, J., MELLOR, D. and KAO, R. R., 2012. Summary of

current knowledge of the size and spatial distribution of the horse population within Great

Britain. BMC Veterinary Research [online], 8(43). Available at:

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1746-6148/8/43 [Accessed 21 December 2012].

CORBIN, L., 2012. Equine Biobank Report [online]. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh.

Available at: http://www.bef.co.uk/downloads/Public_biobank_report.pdf [Accessed 21

December 2012].

CROSSMAN, G. K., 2010. The organisational landscape of the horse industry in England: a

contrast with Sweden and the Netherlands. PhD thesis, University of Exeter. Available from:

http://hdl.handle.net/10036/111475 [Accessed 21 December 2012].

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ROBIN, C. A., LO IACONO, G., GUBBINS, S., WOOD, J. L. N. and NEWTON, J. R., 2012. The

accuracy of the National Equine Database in relation to vector-borne disease risk modelling

of horses in Great Britain. Equine Veterinary Journal [online], In press. Available from

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/evj.12018/abstract [Accessed 21 December

2012].

ROBIN, C. A., WYLIE, C.E., WOOD, J. L. N. and NEWTON, J. R., 2011 Making use of equine

population demography for disease control purposes: preliminary observations on the

difficulties of counting and locating horses in Great Britain. Equine Veterinary Journal, 43(3),

372-375.

Suggested websites

Defra, Horses, http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-pets/pets/horses/

Horse passport information, GOV.UK, Getting and using a horse passport

https://www.gov.uk/horse-passport/overview (Please note: horse passports became

compulsory in England on 28 February 2005, in Scotland on 16 May 2005 and in Wales on 9

February 2005. Compulsory microchipping for horses prior to first registration came into

force in 2009.)

The Blue Cross – National Equine Health Survey:

http://www.bluecross.org.uk/80135/national-equine-health-survey-2012.html

Bristol ‘Cats’ Study: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/vetscience/cats/

The Dogs Life Project: http://www.dogslife.ac.uk/

The EAAP Horse Commission website: http://www.horse-web.net/index.htm

The EFABIS Project: http://efabis-uk.adas.co.uk/

Pedigree Online All Breed Database http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/

Pedigree Online Thoroughbred Database: http://www.pedigreequery.com/

Sporthorse-data: http://www.sporthorse-data.com/index.htm

Stable Express Breeding: http://www.stableexpress.com/

Vet Compass: http://www.rvc.ac.uk/vetcompass/

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Appendix 4: CEIS Case Study Judging Form

Central Equine Information System Case Study Judging Form

Establishment:

CRITERIA MAXIMUM

MARKS

ACTUAL

MARKS COMMENTS

Quality of the Work

Research

Presentation

Discussion

Conclusions

40

Relevance to Industry

Content to inform business case

Commercial application

Innovation

Inclusivity

Etc/more

50

Oral Presentation

Including Audio Visual Aids and

Response to Questions

10

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Document updates

Update 1: Tuesday 12th February 2013

1. Date for circulation of information sharing form updated (page 7)

2. Poster submission guidelines updated (pages 7-8):

a. Students may submit a handout to support their poster; and

b. Guidelines about the filenames of the posters and handouts submitted by

institutions added

3. New section added giving details about the presentations (pages 8-9)

4. Appendix 4 CIES Case Study Judging Form added (page 14)

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