CONFORMATION INDEX OF HORSES OF DIFFERENT GENETIC GROUPS

Abstract Any equestrian activity requires horses with proper fitness, which can be identified through body conformation (BC), calculated by combined biometric measurements. The objective of this study was to evaluate the BC of 86 horses belonging to genetic groups (GG): Crioulo (CR), Brazilian Equestrian (BE), Arabian (ARB), Quarter Horse (QH), Thoroughbred (THO), and a crossbred group with small stature, named as Petiço (PE). We evaluated the relationship between shoulder and withers, estimated body weight, length, weight, weight relative, conformation, compactness and load 1 and 2, load on leg and dactyl-thoracic. The variation sources in the model were the effects of gender, GG, and the interaction GG*gender; the correlation between BC; principal components analysis, preparing a scatter plot with biplot to verify the distribution of GG in relation to the BC; cluster to check distance between GG. The variation sources affected BC (P