Genetic parameters of morphofunctional traits in Andalusian horse

The aim of this study has been to estimate for the first time the genetic p arameters of 18 morphofunctional traits in the Andalusian Horse. The data w ere obtained from the evaluations made on 1273 horses between the years 199 1 to 1997. The heritabilities and genetic correlations of these traits were estimated using a BLUP Animal model with REML methodology. The heritabilit ies obtained for the body measurements were moderate to high (0.35 to 0.95) . The estimates obtained for the scored regional conformation show a lower value (0.03-0.50). The heritability for the racial fidelity and overall for ms were of 0.58, while the scoring for movements shows a value of 0.15, and 0.08 for temperament, which agrees with the fact that they are the most su bjective and complex features being closely tied to the behaviour variables . Lastly, the heritability of the overall evaluation trait, which includes all the previous characters, shows an intermediate magnitude (0.25). The ph enotypic and genetic correlations estimated were all positive. The genetic correlations range between 0.11 and 0.94 for zoometric measures and between 0.12 and 0.91 for the regional morphologic evaluations. The punctuation fo r racial fidelity and overall forms shows a genetic correlation of 0.55 wit h movement scorings and 0.74 with the overall evaluation of the animal.