Comparative study of morphometric proportions among Campolina's stallions and gelded ones

Abstract

In the equine species, the surface characteristics, present a close relationship with its functional classification. The scientific use of linear measurements can contribute decisively in the selective process of many breeds, by identifying the higher morphologically individuals and excluding from reproduction those that are not closed to desirable. The present study objected to evaluate and compare, the linear measures from stallions and gelded horses registered in ABCCCampolina's CP6 and CP8 books, and to determinate the existing correlations. In order to reach so, 15 linear measures from 4.837 stallions and 1.371 gelded were evaluated from descriptive statistic, Pearson's correlation and analysis of variance. Generally, higher values of correlations were observed for stallions than to gelded ones. To stallions, most of the measures were significantly influenced (P<0,01) by the year of birth, state of birth and coat color, while to gelded ones the coat color showed lower influence (P<0,01) upon the measures. It's important to notice that castration did not committed the animal's final growth, however the breeders non sense the lack of appropriated criteria during the selection process and personal preferences can contribute towards stablishing breed characters rather than functionals. This can be highlighted by the fact that Campolina's gelded horses showed, in average, better proportioned than stallions.