The ability to race barefoot is a heritable trait in Standardbred and Coldblooded trotters

Abstract

In equine sports, shoes are used to protect the hooves from wear and tear. In Swedish trotting races, pulling off the shoes to race barefoot is popular because it improves racing time. Good hoof quality is essential for high-performance horses, but not all trotting horses have hooves that tolerate barefoot racing. The ability to race barefoot is a complex trait that is known to be influenced by environmental factors, but the genetic basis of this trait has not been studied. The aim of this study was to estimate genetic parameters and correlations between estimated breeding values for three novel traits: two related to the proportion of barefoot races and “barefoot status”, a binary trait that reflects the probability of racing unshod in a race, in Swedish Standardbred trotters (SB) and Swedish-Norwegian Coldblooded trotters (CB). For the two traits describing the proportion of barefoot races, single-trait mixed linear animal models were used to estimate variance components for up to 24,958 SB and up to 4050 CB. Estimates of heritability ranged from 0.17 to 0.28. For barefoot status, a binary trait with repeated measurements, 875,056 observations from 25,973 SB, and 93,376 observations from 3384 CB were included. Using a single-trait mixed animal threshold model estimates of heritability for barefoot status were 0.07 and 0.08. The Pearson correlation coefficient between the estimated breeding values for barefoot status and each of the traits describing the proportion of barefoot races for breeding stallions was 0.63 and 0.64 for SB and 0.82 and 0.76 for CB. The traits analyzed reflecting the ability to race barefoot are heritable, with the traits for the proportion of barefoot races showing higher heritability estimates for both breeds than barefoot status. Estimated breeding values for breeding stallions were moderately to strongly correlated for the three traits. The average accuracy of estimated breeding values for breeding stallions was moderate to high for all traits. To breed for the ability to race barefoot, further studies on the genetic correlation of the ability to race barefoot with performance traits and the impact of racing barefoot on career length, are necessary.