Effectiveness of the morphofunctional evaluation method of Campolina and Mangalarga Marchador breeds

ABSTRACT This study aimed to verify whether the criterion of exhibition contests adopted for Campolina and Mangalarga Marchador breeds has been successful in recent years, i.e., if the subsequent generations have the morphology recommended by the standard of the breed allied with high-quality marcha, a four-beat ambling gait. The classifications achieved by each horse during national horse shows in morphology and gait contests underwent Spearman's correlation to verify the number of contests with a correlation between the classifications in the two judgments and those with no correlation. Next, the number of contests with or without such correlation underwent a frequency distribution test considering the variables breed, year, age, marcha category, and sex. Spearman's correlation coefficient (r) of contests with a correlation was also used as a parameter. A difference was observed among years of evaluation only for Mangalarga Marchador horses, with a greater number of contests with correlations between morphological and ambling gait performances between 1998 and 2004. On both breeds, the correlation was found in more contests among foals than adult horses. When Spearman's correlation coefficients were compared, Campolina contests exhibited a higher r than Mangalarga Marchador, 68.14 and 63.68%, respectively. Only Mangalarga Marchador males had higher r value than females, 67.27 and 59.73%, respectively. The contest criterion adopted by Campolina and Mangalarga Marchador associations to select superior individuals does not correlate, in subsequent generations, with the morphology recommended by the standard of the breeds with high-quality marcha progress in the same individuals.