How to complete an HSI marking chart, step by step
The Horse Sport Ireland marking chart is the page most passport applications live or die on. It looks simple, one silhouette and a handful of text boxes, but it follows strict identification conventions and a PIO clerk will bounce anything they cannot read or reconcile. This guide walks through the chart section by section, the way an experienced equine vet fills it in.
What the chart is for
Every equine passport issued in Ireland must contain a completed identification chart: an outline diagram of the horse marked up by a veterinary surgeon, plus written descriptions of every permanent marking. The chart is the legal description of the animal. If the horse is ever sold, exported, presented at a show or slaughtered, this page is what officials compare against the animal in front of them.
Horse Sport Ireland is the largest of the six Irish Passport Issuing Organisations, so its chart layout is the one most vets see weekly. The others, Weatherbys, Leisure Horse Ireland, the Connemara Pony Breeders Society, the Irish Horse Board and the IHRA, all use the same underlying identification rules with their own page layouts.
Before you draw anything
Scan the microchip first and write the full 15 digit number on the chart before touching the diagram. A perfect chart attached to the wrong chip number is worse than useless. Check the chip reads consistently on both sides of the neck and record the reading date and location.
Stand back and look at the whole horse in good light. Identify the base colour, then work nose to tail cataloguing white markings, whorls, scars, brands and any acquired marks. Doing the survey before drawing means the diagram and the written boxes will agree, which is the single biggest thing PIO clerks check.
Drawing conventions that matter
Follow the FEI identification conventions your PIO expects: white markings are outlined and hatched in red, whorls are shown as a black X at the exact centre of the hair pattern, and acquired marks such as scars or freeze brands are drawn with an arrow in black. Keep lines inside the silhouette and never shade an area solid, hatching must stay legible after photocopying.
Precision beats artistry. A star drawn slightly too large is a correction; a whorl drawn on the wrong side of the crest is a different horse. When a marking sits near a boundary, for example a sock that ends exactly at the fetlock, draw the boundary line deliberately and describe the limit in words as well.
Writing the descriptions
Each body region has its own text box: head, neck, left and right forelegs, left and right hindlegs, body, and acquired markings. Write in the standard identification vocabulary, star, stripe, snip, sock, stocking, whorl, and always state left or right from the horse's point of view, never the observer's.
Every whorl drawn on the diagram must appear in the text, with its position anchored to a landmark: above eye level, at the crest midway, on the left side of the neck below the mane line. Boxes with nothing to report should read Nil rather than being left blank, an empty box reads as an incomplete chart.
The checks a PIO clerk runs
Before filing, run the same reconciliation the PIO will: does every drawn mark have a written description, does every written description have a drawn mark, does the whorl count match, is the chip number 15 digits, is the chart signed and stamped with the date and place the markings were taken. Those five checks catch nearly every rejection.
EquiSketch automates exactly this workflow: photograph the completed chart and the system locates each mark geometrically, writes the description in the wording your PIO expects, flags whorl count mismatches, and files a signed PDF the practice can retrieve by microchip number.
Frequently asked
Who is allowed to complete an HSI marking chart?
The identification section of a passport application must be completed and signed by a registered veterinary surgeon who has examined the animal. Practice staff can fill in owner details, but the diagram, descriptions and signature are the vet's.
What colour pen should be used on a marking chart?
Standard identification convention is red for white markings and black or blue for whorls, acquired marks and text. Check the current guidance from the specific PIO, as some issue their own instructions with the form.
How many whorls need to be recorded?
Whorls that make the animal identifiable must be drawn and described. For animals with minimal or no white markings, most PIOs expect at least the head and neck whorls to be located precisely, since they may be the only distinguishing features.
Can I submit a photograph of the chart instead of the original?
That depends on the PIO. Many now accept scanned or digitally filed charts, which is the workflow EquiSketch supports: the vet signs digitally and the PIO retrieves the chart by microchip number.