Abstract
ABSTRACT: This study analyzed the demographic and biometric changes in registered animals of the Mangalarga breed over the decades. Information from 206,428 Mangalarga horses born between 1930 and 2018 extracted from the genealogic registry system of the Associação Brasileira de Criadores de Cavalos da Raça Mangalarga was employed. The data referred to sex, birth date, fur coat, breeding site location, score achieved at genealogic registration, and three body measurements. Height at withers and the thoracic and cannon bone circumferences were used to calculate five morphometric indices. Results were submitted to analysis of variance using a completely randomized split-plot design where the plots comprised the sexes and the split-plots comprised the decades of selection. Between 1930 and 1990, genealogic registrations progressively increased, particularly in the 1970s and 80s, when the herd experienced the highest growth rate. In 2018, Mangalarga breeding sites were reported in 23 Brazilian states and the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais, and Bahia held the largest herds. Between 1970 and 2018, the height at withers of mares, stallions, and geldings increased by 5.1, 3.1, and 2.1 cm, respectively. The thoracic circumference of stallions increased by 3.3 cm and the cannon bone circumference of mares decreased by 0.34 cm. It is concluded that the Mangalarga breed is found across Brazil, especially in the Southeast region. Irrespective of sex, the selection of the breed has led to taller Mangalarga horses. In addition, the stallions became heavier and gained thoracic circumference, while mares became hypometric.
Highlights
The quest for horses with a comfortable gait, able to be used in hunting and herding, is part of the cultural history of the southern portion of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais
Given the sports ability and diagonal, comfortable gait of the horses descending from that herd, the breed soon spread across the state of São Paulo and neighboring states
Data were extracted from animals born between 1930 and 2018 regarding sex, date of birth, final coat, Brazilian state of the breeding site, score achieved by the horse at the zootechnical evaluation for the definitive genealogic registration
Summary
The quest for horses with a comfortable gait, able to be used in hunting and herding, is part of the cultural history of the southern portion of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. For over 100 years, breeders employed their own selection criteria as the Mangalarga breed itself had not been well defined at the time (JUNQUEIRA, 2004). Those breeders valued the role required more than proper conformation and beauty, which made the herd functionally superior, but highly heterogeneous morphologically (SIMÕES, 2014). The ABCCRM is guiding the selection of the breed to fit the current modern labor and sports horse while maintaining the peculiar traits of the breed, in particular the comfortable gait, with no loss of aesthetic beauty (ABCCRM, 2019). The present o analyzed the geographic distribution of the Mangalarga herd over decades of selection and compared the measurements and morphometric indices of mares, stallions, and geldings of the breed between 1960 and 2018
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