Attitudes of Irish stallion masters to genetic evaluation of sport horses

An annual genetic evaluation of showjumping horses has been conducted in Ir eland since 1993, The Department of Animal Science and Production at Univer sity College Dublin carry out the work under the auspices of the Irish Hors e Board. In 1997, a survey was undertaken to ascertain the attitudes of Iri sh stallion masters to the genetic evaluation programme, The survey sample included all stallion masters (as Listed by the Irish Horse Board, 1996) wh o stood three or more stallions (47) and a random sample of 129 stallion ma sters drawn from the 188 stallion masters who stood one or two stallions. A total of 158 interviews were completed out of a sample size of 176 stallio n masters, giving a response rate of 90%. It was found that 49% of responde nts had not heard of the Stallion Genetic Evaluation Project, Many responde nts (80%) expressed an interest in receiving more information on the geneti c evaluation of stallions. The results suggest that this key element of the sport horse breeding industry has a need for information of a scientific n ature to be made available on a routine basis and that the priority is the provision of information to the breeders on the subject of genetic evaluati on of horses.