the system that is already well established and sits at the heart of many players' games, to one that - from what people have experienced so far - works considerably less well, they are just going annoy players. And many of those players they are annoying are people who already buy passes. Irritating your customer base is not a good way to encourage them to spend more - people do not pay for what they do not enjoy.
People do not want their games dictated to them by some arbitrary points system that seems to think you are not a loyal player if you aren't using all aspects of the game every day. From what people have reported on other servers, people who play an active game, including caring for lots of horses, competing and even entering the GP, are not getting the full 10 points and are more frequently in the 6-8 range.

There will be some players who compensate for the lost passes by spending more, but many players will just downsize their game instead, and it is unlikely to be a change that encourages non-pass buyers to become pass buyers.

If Owlient wish to encourage pass buying, there are better ways to do it than removing the pass horse system. One thing they should address is the price of many BM items and/or the price of passes. A lot of BMIs are overpriced, and unevenly priced, e.g. GA and MB cost the same, but MB gives a grand total of +11 skills (and a picture with wings) while GA gives +30 skills and a wide range of coats made by some very talented artists - how are these two items valued the same? In many cases, spending passes on BM items is a waste of money when you can buy the same item for equus in the Exchanges or win them in the constant promos.
Another approach they could take is offering limited time (24-48h) special offers when purchasing passes. For example, a customisation pack that costs £5 (or equivalent) that contains five passes, a couple of GAs, some 2* coloured tack and a selection of shop items (mashes, fertiliser, apples etc.); a £10 training pack that contains 10 passes, a Nyx Pack and some AP; a £1 competition bundle containing a selection of coloured tack, 3* saddles/bridles, and one of each bonus (including studs, even for non-VIPs). These are just rough ideas but the concept should be clear - it is essentially a much more scaled down version of the Xmas packs, that are more tempting than purely buying passes but have more affordable offers than the Xmas packs do (and, with variety, can be more tailored to different game focuses).

These are just the ideas I came up with while sitting here typing,. There are lots of ways Owlient could tempt people to buy passes if they put their mind to it, rather than trying to strong arm us into it by messing with our games and annoying their customers. Unsurprisingly, most pass buyers do not enjoy feeling like the company is just trying to bleed their wallets dry.

Oh, it's really ugly. The roots of the tree look like a varicous leg of an old lady. Sorry for the metaphor for those who are visile. I would be a little less dissapointed over the changes if the horse at least looked good. But thanks for the pictures, Kusni.

Personally I don't think Yggdrasil is ugly - I actually quite like the 5th and 6th images - but I do think it looks almost unfinished, like the artist didn't bother touching up the final result. The foal images are a bit 'meh' (technical terminology here), but I think that is because it is bald, which makes it look a bit weird. The middle stages I quite like, though I like the 5th more than the 6th. The last two stages, however, look a bit like examples of what happens when a novice artist goes overboard with the smudge/airbrush tool and makes everything too soft and untextured, especially the hindquarters and tail. To me it looks like they concentrated on making the tree look good, and neglected the horse beneath a bit. On a normal divine I wouldn't pay much attention, but on a divine where the pictures are literally the only feature, you would think they would go the extra mile to produce something that is outstanding.

the change? Are players beginning to ...for the lack of a better phrase... get accustomed to the change? As in they just continue as normal.
Or have they just started downsizing their game, or have some even just stopped to play entirely?

Something just looks kind of...off. Maybe the legs are a tiny bit too long, or maybe it's the fact that at this stage, Yggdrasil has no mane or tail at all. Or it could be that the proportions of the neck and head compared to the body are a bit off. When Yggdrasil begins to grow a bit older, It looks like the artist blended parts of its body a bit too much, instead of giving it a slightly rough texture like a tree, which in my opinion would look better. Yggdrasil is a bit too pudgy, especially in the last picture. It looks strange how the "trees" are just blended into his body.

Just for this answer I went and checked latest comments under Pass horse change topic,, (FYI it has already 3 502 comennts)
Let me translate few comments first,,

---
"I stopped playing this game actively. With these news, whole game lost it's meaning. I do hate, when someone is doing experiments on me... But when you think about it, it's good they introduced us this update. At least, I can fill my free time with better things, than playing this game."
---
"So what supporters of this update? Did you squirrel away your free passes already? Are you buried in passes, as you imagined...? You have nothing, right?

First it was - Yeaa, awesome, free pass every 3 day, now you are satisfied with pass per week, just not to admit your mistake...
And I guarantee you, that soon your daily allocation of points will drop so low, that you'll have 1 pass per month again, as ever - of course without pass horses!!!

Message for "creators" - do you really think, that noone will notice that gradual drop of points you can gain daily?
No way... I wanted to buy a Christmas pack as ever, but I won't. Not for this betrayal.

I don't give a *inappropriate word for forums* about this game anymore."
---

And there's hundreds of messages with this kind,, People are not extending their VIP's, are dissolving their teams,, Many of them also stopped buying passes, aren't that active as they always were, or else are ending with the game (deleting account),, (Mostly players with high seniority)
There's few players who likes it, but not many,,
That's at least CZ server, I don't know how it is on BG nor IT,,
They'll never get accustomed to this change,,They'll always be against it, until something will change,,

My opinion about Yggdrasil: It looks like a broccoli, without any uses. If Howrse wants this change to be "successful" they should make that Yggdrasil gives something like.: 10 Pass Seeds, if not it's just for ranking purposes, no other use. So I just can say, if Howrse doesn't give any other purpose to him, FORGET this idea!

Howrse more carries about money, not the players.

Hmm...Is Howrse deaf ? Cause it doesn't seem like listening.So many players are against this and a lot of them even reached the limits to go complain at contact us |FOR REAL| this is runing their game and gets them to lost costumers where is the point ? OWlient isn't going to lose anything you can't harm a company, you will only harm low paid workers and volunteers they will lose profit of the website and they know it they will take advantage of many players that play the game for years or even more, such a shame such a shame I guess you won { I'm gettin passes } with money.If I could ever recommend them specific prices I would cause honestly 1 pass doesn't worth a penny they should be giving 30 passes with 1 dollar. Also they seem like they enjoy removing usefull BMIs like the achiless heel and exploit poor players by putting their favourite divine on the golden fleece (ONYX I need him) my dream divine. The good thing is that they don't steal money from credit cards or ordynairy bank transfers but it won't be long 'till they start They already have fyber offers what do you expect? Just cause I have experience of modding games I am telling you its not too late too cancel the pass change and if they set it they can remove it as they wish please quote if you have an opinion you'd like to put

Just for this answer I went and checked latest comments under Pass horse change topic,, (FYI it has already 3 502 comennts)
Let me translate few comments first,,

---
"I stopped playing this game actively. With these news, whole game lost it's meaning. I do hate, when someone is doing experiments on me... But when you think about it, it's good they introduced us this update. At least, I can fill my free time with better things, than playing this game."
---
"So what supporters of this update? Did you squirrel away your free passes already? Are you buried in passes, as you imagined...? You have nothing, right?

First it was - Yeaa, awesome, free pass every 3 day, now you are satisfied with pass per week, just not to admit your mistake...
And I guarantee you, that soon your daily allocation of points will drop so low, that you'll have 1 pass per month again, as ever - of course without pass horses!!!

Message for "creators" - do you really think, that noone will notice that gradual drop of points you can gain daily?
No way... I wanted to buy a Christmas pack as ever, but I won't. Not for this betrayal.

I don't give a *inappropriate word for forums* about this game anymore."
---

And there's hundreds of messages with this kind,, People are not extending their VIP's, are dissolving their teams,, Many of them also stopped buying passes, aren't that active as they always were, or else are ending with the game (deleting account),, (Mostly players with high seniority)
There's few players who likes it, but not many,,
That's at least CZ server, I don't know how it is on BG nor IT,,
They'll never get accustomed to this change,,They'll always be against it, until something will change,,

if you have an account on the Italian, Czech Rep., or Bulgarian servers you can find forums on it there

Howrse is trying to encourage the buying of passes, as they are a business. That's what businesses do. Many of my good friends rely on pass horses to uphold their account. When Howrse takes these away, they will lose so many players. Remember the good old days when you didn't even need passes to get something good in a promo? And now we spend hundreds and don't even get the divine! All the VIP players that relied on pass horses for their VIP status are now declining rapidly. Think of all the teams that are going to be injured, even destroyed, by Howrse's carelessness. And Howrse is nowhere near as friendly as they pretend to be. They know that we are extremely opposed to the change, but they don't care! People, I have spent $90 on passes for ONE PROMO and guess what I got? Liten. That's it. Nope, didn't make to Seth, and by then I had had enough rubbish luck. Howrse thinks what they're doing is good for them but it's quite the opposite. I can't wait to see what they do when they lose some of their top players, and slowly everyone leaves. On the UK server, TwilightConnemaras (4th in general ranking) let go of her VIP account. And I'm sure she isn't the only one. Howrse isn't only hurting themselves, they're hurting the community. While Howrse tries to increase the amount of passes bought, they are simply decreasing the amount of players to buy them. And if you want to increase pass purchases, here are a few suggestions Howrse: 1. Make the promos seem possible to complete. Come on, eleven statuettes for a Balios? The only was that's ever going to happen is with...you guessed it...passes. And you know, spending ten bucks on passes to get the divine from a promo doesn't sound too bad. But having to use $100+?! That's insane! And it simply drives players away from buying the passes to complete the promo. 2. Possibly try to reasonably price BMIs. 2 passes for a Chronos' Timer, which cuts the time it takes to train your horse in half. Commonly used on skillers. That shouldn't make so much of a difference! Three years training vs six? I know age plays into competition wins, but that's 5% of the calculation. Seriously? If you're actually skilling your horse, you'll use Morpheus' Arms anyway! And what's the deal with some of this pricing? For instance, as bezo93 said, a Medusa's Blood, which gives a grand total of eleven skills and wings, vs a Golden Apple, which gives a total of 30 skills and a gorgeous picture for your horse. Maybe you could price some things at five diamonds? Oh, and diamonds! Just another way to drain you of your money. You can only use them to buy things from Ow, not other payers, so your diamonds just get put back into the system and disappear forever! Maybe a feature that lets you convert ten diamonds into passes? I'm sorry for the long rant guys.