Size and shape analysis of morphofunctional traits in the Spanish Arab horse

The aim of this study was to analyse the morphology of the Spanish Arab horse using classical multivariate statistical tools and methods in the field of Geometric Morphometrics (GMM) in order to find size and shape differences between them. Our data consisted of 28 body measurements and 9 angles from 171 (58 males, 88 females and 25 geldings) Spanish Arab Horses with different breeding goals such as morphological show aptitude, endurance race aptitude and others, used for recreational activities.The main difference between breeding goals was observed in the functional posterior triangle and in size and shape. The thin-plate splines of reference configurations for each breeding goal gave differences in the coordinates corresponding to the stifle. The analysis using relative warps did not give any significant difference whereas the same analysis using measurement showed a clear difference between animals bred for each objective. The analyses of morphofunctional traits carried out here did not reveal any significant differences between “shape” of animals bred for different purposes so far in the Spanish Arab horse. Whereas for “size” analysis the significant differences between morphological and endurance aptitude where observed in the posterior triangle. The results obtained here might be valuable for the selection scheme in order to differentiate individuals with a specific aptitude and select them.