Abstract
The aim of this study was to estimate the genetic parameters of performance in a 750-km, 15-day ride in Criollo horses. Heritability (h2) and maternal lineage effects (mt2) were obtained for rank, a relative placing measure of performance. Additive genetic and maternal lineage (rmt) correlations among five medium-to-high intensity phase ranks (pRK) and final rank (RK) were also estimated. Individual records from 1,236 Criollo horses from 1979 to 2012 were used. A multivariate threshold animal model was applied to the pRK and RK. Heritability was moderate to low (0.156-0.275). Estimates of mt2 were consistently low (0.04-0.06). Additive genetic correlations between individual pRK and RK were high (0.801-0.924), and the genetic correlations between individual pRKs ranged from 0.763 to 0.847. The pRK heritabilities revealed that some phases were explained by a greater additive component, whereas others showed stronger genetic relationships with RK. Thus, not all pRK may be considered as similar measures of performance in competition.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics |
| Volume | 135 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages (from-to) | 186-193 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| ISSN | 0931-2668 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 7 May 2018 |
Keywords
- Endurance
- Genetic correlation
- Heritability
- Horse
- Rank