Evaluation of stallions based on linear description of their daughters

Abstract

The purpose of our work was an objective evaluation of mares of the Czech warmblood horse based on the linear description, as well as the evaluation of the benefits of stallion breeding based on the linear description of their daughters and - for specific stallions - the evaluation of certain individual exterior traits which are passed on by stallions to their offspring. Stallion horses with at least 7 descendants were used for the evaluation and determination of the values, mares which underwent a linear description of traits at the age of 3 years. For this evaluation we used available data from the year 1996 to 2012, a total including 251 stallions and 4709 mares and more than 500 000 records related to the linear description. The data were gathered from the database of the Central Register of Horse Breeding at Slatiñany in the Czech Republic. These data were manually compiled using Excel 2007 and then processed and evaluated according to the objectives of the present study using the linear model GLM as well as the statistical programme Scheffe. The results of the study showed a convincing statistical influence of the stallions on all the monitored exterior traits analyzed on the mares for the father-factor, and after evaluating all the general exterior traits the statistical difference among the stallions was seen as convincing. We found out that in most cases the breed had no convincing statistical influence on the analyzed traits of the linear description. On the contrary, in terms of the other effects (father and year of measurement) we found a convincing statistical influence on all traits of the linear description. For some stallions we evaluated particular traits of linear description, which they pass on to their female offspring using charts and graphics. Afterwards we compared reciprocally certain stallions according to the traits of the linear description.