Toward the best young horse performance—Variability of behavior and performance-related traits in Polish warmbloods during years 2002-2017

Abstract

Knowledge on the best timing for horse performance is necessary to ensure horse well-being and longevity. The training plan should take into account seasonal preferences of horses to establish the optimal performance timing. The effect of season/month on horse performance was investigated as the retrospective evaluation of secondary data using a cross-sectional design on the basis of official standardized performance tests for young breeding warmblood horses (2050 mares and 73 stallions) to establish the best performance months. The tests for mares were conducted in all months of the year and for stallions in two different seasons/months. Analysis of variance was performed to evaluate the fixed effects of season/month, year, training center, breed register, random effect of sire, and linear regression on age in days. The influence of month of testing was statistically significant for the traits of “character” (P = 0.0053) and “temperament” (P = 0.0166) evaluated in mares. The trait “rideability” (P = 0.0098) differed between months in mare station tests, but not in field tests. Lower performance results were obtained generally in March and November. These months seem to be suboptimal for young horse performance in temperate climate zones. Behavior-related traits of mare performance demonstrate season-dependent characteristics, which was not the case for mare locomotion traits and stallion characteristics.