Den svenska varmblodiga hästens avelsmål : en enkätundersökning och analys av genetiska trender

Sammanfattning: As the quality of internationally competing horses is increasing, a debate concerning the breeding goal of the Swedish Warmblood horse has arisen. Some people claim that the breeding goal should be divided into two separate goals in the future; one for show jumping horses and another one for dressage horses. At the same time others claim that since the largest group of people using the Swedish Warmblood horse today is amateur riders, the needs of these riders should be taken into a larger consideration in the breeding program. The largest emphasis in this matter is on the horses' temperament. The objective of the study was to investigate what the majority of the Swedish horse people think about a variety of questions concerning today's breeding goal of the Swedish Warmblood horse. The questions regarded how future changes of the breeding goal should look like, what conformation qualities that are wanted and what the best height of the horse is considered to be. The questionnaire also had as an objective to determine what temperament features that are wanted by different categories of horse people, and if different views, what differences were. To analyze if separate breeding goal is necessary to meet high demands of progeny in the future, a study of genetic trends was conducted. In the study the best quarter out of all evaluated horses for each year, was used for visualizing the genetic trends of the best horses in the traits show jumping, dressage and conformation. The opinions of the horse-related people in Sweden, regarding the future breeding objective of the Swedish Warmblood horse were investigated in a questionnaire. The study included 1183 randomly chosen persons within the four groups: trainers, riders, breeders and riding school head coaches. The response frequency of the questionnaire was 50 %. The study of genetic trends was conducted on BLUP- values and grades from the Riding Horse Quality Event (RHQE), for horses evaluated in the years 1974-2005. The results of the analyses of genetic trends indicated that there are good possibilities to specialize horses to a specific trait, within the multi-purpose breeding goal of today. In the questionnaire only 21 % out of all participants wanted separate breeding goals of the Swedish Warmblood horse in the future. Many of Swedish horse people, i.e. 41 % of all participants, think that the consideration of temperament in the genetic evaluation of today is inadequate. The request for a better consideration of temperament was high in all groups of horse people, especially among dressage riders. The ideal height of a Swedish Warmblood horse was 166,7 cm, with only a difference of less than 2,5 cm in average height between different groups of horse people. The results of this study show that the breeding goal for the Swedish Warmblood horse should remain as a multi-purpose goal. It is not of current interest to further separate the breeding goal for different disciplines more than the present specialization. In the future it is proposed that horse evaluations should include temperament and hoof quality to a lager extent. The best alternative would probably be to include temperament tests to a larger extent into the station- and field tests of young horses and stallions.