Estimates of genetic parameters for conformation measures and scores in Finnhorse and Standardbred foals

The aim of this study was to estimate genetic parameters for conformation measures and scores in the Finnhorse and the Standardbred foals presented in foal shows. Studied traits included height at withers and at croup, six subjectively evaluated conformation traits and overall grade. Data were from 10-year period (1995-2004) and consisted of 5821 Finnhorse foals (1-3 years old) with 7644 records and 2570 Standardbred foals (1-2 years old) with 2864 records. Variance components were estimated with REML - animal model using VCE4 program. The model included age class, year of judging, sex and region as fixed effects, and additive genetic, permanent environmental and residual as random effects. Estimates of heritability for measured traits were very high in both breeds (0.88-0.90). Estimates of heritability for conformation traits varied from 0.13 to 0.32 in the Finnhorse and from 0.06 to 0.47 in the Standardbred. In both breeds, estimates of heritability were lowest for hooves and movements at walk, and highest for type and body conformation among scored traits. Estimate of heritability for overall grade was in the Finnhorse 0.32 and in the Standardbred 0.34. Genetic correlations between overall grade and different conformation traits were 0.35-0.84 in the Finnhorse and 0.31-0.88 in the Standardbred. Thus, selection based on the overall grade would improve all studied characteristics.