Sport’s performance of Czech warmblood horse on the base of results in the breeding competitions

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the sporting efficiency of the Czech warm-blooded horse on the basis of their results in breeding competitions. These competitions, so-called Criteria of Young Horses, are part of the testing of young horses. In this work we focused only on the Criteria of Young Horses in jumping competitions. These competitions are advertised only for 4 to 6-year-old stallions and mares. The competitions are state-subsidised and are based on the valid programme of subsidies for the Czech Republic. The horses get three marks: for the jump, dexterity and readiness of the horse. The authorised examiner gives the marks. All horses of sports breeds bred in the Czech Republic may take part in the competitions, i.e. the Czech warm-blooded, Slovakian warm-blooded, the Kinský horse and the Moravian warm-blooded. The organiser of these competitions is the Czech Equestrian Federation.The evaluated results are from the period of 1998–2007. We compared the factors of sex, country of origin of the horse, age, examiner, level of difficulty of the competition and year of the venue. In these competitions 1617 horses started. The results were evaluated using analysis of variance and subsequent tests. Statistically significant differences were detected for all the evaluated factors. In terms of the sex factor the evaluation of the stallions was highly significantly (P < 0.00) higher than the mares. Comparisons of the country of origin revealed that the evaluation of imported horses was highly significantly (P < 0.00) better than of horses of Czech breeders. When comparing the age we discovered that the rating of six and five-year-old horses was statistically significantly (P < 0.00) higher than of the four-year-old horses. This factor is connected with the level of difficulty of the competition. Eva­lua­tions in the higher levels of difficulty were statistically highly significantly (P < 0.00) better than in the lower levels of difficulty. Comparisons of the factor of the year of the competition showed that the quality of the starting horses is increasing.When we considered the possibility of applying these results to estimate the breeding value we saw the biggest problem in the great disunity in the origin of the Czech horses. In the database we dis­co­ve­red that each stud horse had an average of 3 offspring and the mother an average 1.3 offspring. We consider these figures to be unsatisfactory. We assume that it is possible to estimate the breeding va­lues because the database is extensive, but the source of the great error in calculation may be the insufficient number of offspring of the stud horses.

Keywords

• horse
• Czech warm-blood
• breeding competitions
• sport’s performance