Abstract

When breeding Swedish Standardbred trotters, the goal is well-tempered, sustainable and competitive racing horses. Conformation traits are believed to be important for a high performance and a long career, but conformation has not routinely been assessed in young Swedish Standardbreds. To enable studies of the relationship between conformation, leg health and later trotting performance, in total 1,125 Swedish Standardbred trotters born in 2011 and 2012 were assessed at Swedish yearling auctions. The conformation traits were subjectively described on a linear scale between two extremes. Results from radiographic examinations of fetlocks and hocks of most horses were also available. After data editing, 1,028 horses remained in the dataset. The conformation assessment scores and radiographic findings were statistically analyzed together with the performance of the horses as three-year-olds using SAS GLM. For horses born in 2011 also records of performance as four-year-olds were analyzed. The performance measures used were best racing time, earnings per start, percentage of placings (1-3) and number of starts. Radiographic findings of osteochondrosis and palmar/plantar osseous fragments were categorized according to a scale of severity and if the horse had had surgical treatment or not. Conformation traits assessed on yearlings with significant effects on their performance as three-year-olds were: body size, development, body direction, proportions (height vs length of body), muscularity of the neck, length and height of the withers, thoracic depth, front leg cannon bone length, and front and hind leg conformation from the side. Radiographic findings in yearlings significantly affected best racing time, earnings, number of starts and placings as three-year-olds (P<0.05). Our results suggest that conformation scores and radiographic findings in yearling Standardbred trotters could be useful indicators of trotting performance later in life.

Published in

Annual meeting of the European Association for Animal Production
2016, number: 22, pages: 580-580
Book title: Book of Abstracts of the 67th Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science
ISBN: 978-90-8686-284-9, eISBN: 978-90-8686-830-8
Publisher: Wageningen Academic Publishers

Conference

67th Annual Meeting of the European Federation of Animal Science

Authors' information