Genetic improvement of Horses

Lecturers give an overview of the scientific and practical application of equine management and selection principles. The course discuss the genetic principles and their application in the genetic improvement of horses and cover several fields, like genetics of colour variation, behaviour, reproduction and modern breeding technologies in the mare, genetic resources and their conservation and genetics of conformation, locomotion and physiological trait. Genetics of performance traits and genetic improvement of the horses are the main subjects of the course, especially their relation in the sport and racehorse breeding. Student teams define a breeding goal and develop a breeding plan for different breeds in a semester project. Students also use computers to learn how those can help to develop a breeding plan.

Areas of the Study Program: Measurements of performance of sport horses; Performance testing at station and in field tests; Performance testing in competitions; Heritability of performance traits; Genetic relationships between performance traits; Conformation and motion in sport horse breeding, heritability of conformation traits; Horse colour genetics

Course includes field trips to local studs and farms.