Morphometric measurements and animal-performance indices in a study of racial forms of Brazilian Sport Horses undergoing training for eventing

Abstract

-This study aimed to evaluate, in a practical manner, the use of linear and angular measurements and different animal-performance indices in a study on the breed-specific conformation of Brazilian Sport Horses training for eventing. These data can form the basis for the development of future studies based on the parameters evaluated and the calculations made. Seventeen Brazilian Sport Horses training for eventing were selected. Morphometric evaluations were made of all animals using linear and angular measurements. The linear measurements were withers, croup, and barrel heights; body, croup, shoulder, neck, and head lengths; head, chest, and hip widths; distance from the elbow to the ground and from the sternum to the ground (empty substernal); and thorax, forearm, knee, fetlock, and fore cannon girths. The angular measurements were shoulder-ground, shoulder-humerus, humerus-radius, metacarpus-phalanx, coxae-ground, coxae-femur, femur-tibia, and tibiametatarsus angles. Thirteen animal-performance indices were calculated to have a better understanding of the conformation of the animals and their proportions: the relationship between the withers and croup heights, chest index, dactyl-thoracic index, estimated weight, body index, thoracic index, conformation index, load index 1, load index 2, relative body index, compactness index 1, compactness index 2, and meloscopic index. Brazilian Sport Horses in eventing training were within the expected conformation for an athletic horse, but the animal-performance indices differed among them because they are heterogeneous horses resulting from crossing among various different breeds. The use of linear and angular measurements allows the correct characterization of racial forms of Brazilian Sport Horses undergoing training for eventing. Animal-performance indices can be useful in a study of a breed-specific conformation of athletic horses.

Multivariate analysis of morphometry effect on race performance in Thoroughbred horses

“…Withers height, rump height, and chest girth were positively and significantly correlated with the other measurements. These results are in agreement with previous reports on Thoroughbred horses (Brooks et al, 2010), Brazilian Sport horses (Padilha et al, 2017), and Arabian horses (Sadek et al, 2006).…”

“…Thoroughbred horses are required to conform to the breed characteristics in various body measurements. Many studies involving morphometric measurements in different horse breeds have been carried out (Anderson and McIlwraith, 2004;Staniar et al, 2004;Gücüyener Hacan and Akçapınar, 2011;Yılmaz and Ertuğrul, 2012;Padilha et al, 2017). On the other hand, no research has been found on the impact of morphometric measurements of Thoroughbred horses on their race performance (m/sec).…”

Updates on the Morphometric Characterization of Indian Pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) in Sri Lanka

“…Such relationships have been derived for large mammals such as elephants, using heart girth, height at the withers, body length, and foot-pad circumference as vital measurements [57]. In this study, all tested morphometric parameters showed statistically significant correlations with the total body length and weight as in the case of other mammals [26,43,[45][46][47]57]. According to regression models developed in this study, the tail length and hindfoot diameter were found to be reliable predictors of total body length.…”

“…The total body length was used as it is a distinct parameter positively correlated to age [ 42 , 43 , 44 ]. The circumference of the shoulder was selected as it is known to have a positive correlation with body weight and age [ 38 , 43 , 45 , 46 , 47 ]. Body weight was not used as a clustering variable because weight measurements were available for only 13 specimens.…”

Evaluation of Abnormal Limb Conformation in Jumping Thoroughbred Horses

“…Both linear measurements and linear scoring system are the most popular methods to judge conformation in horses. Duensing et al (2016) and Padilha et al (2017) affirmed that the use of linear and angular measurements allowed an efficient selection of durable and competitive sport horses and could used as performance indices useful in a study of a bread specific conformation of athletic horses.…”