The Icelandic horse, breeding and diversity

Abstract

The Icelandic horse is a very old, and one of the purest horse breeds in the world. They came to Iceland with the Vikings several centuries ago. It is the only horse breed on Iceland, and its purity is secured by a law prohibiting import of any horses and horse semen to Iceland. Any horse leaving Iceland will not be allowed to return. The Icelandic horse is well known for its additional gaits, tölt and pace, as well as for its good temper and spirit. During the first half of this century there were two distinct breeding goals, one for riding horses, and one for working horses. Nowadays the Icelandic horse is mostly bred for its riding traits. The Icelandic horse was the first breed among all species where a multivariate BLUP (Best Linear Unibased Prediction) animal model was applied for the prediction of breeding values. Through breeding programs the great diversity of the horse is maintained. There are approximately 40 colors and color varieties among the Icelandic horses. The roan color is a rare color and it is preserved in the breeding by keeping roan fillies from roan mares in the breeding program. The current method of genetic evaluation is based on records from breeding field-tests only. Although competition performance is not directly specified in the breeding goal for Icelandic horses, good competition horses are considered very valuable. During the last years, several studies have been carried out concerning the genetic correlations between competition traits and traits scored at breeding field-tests. These studies were carried out to find out whether the competition traits could be included in the genetic evaluation of Icelandic horses.