Preliminary analysis of the development of a breeding program of the Peruvian Paso horse in field conditions

The genetic parameters of overreach, term and acuteness in Peruvian Paso horses (PPH) have not been determined to date. It is important to estimate these parameters for application in PPH breeding, therefore, the aim of this study was to estimate the heritability, repeatability, and genetic correlations in field conditions of overreach, term, and acuteness of PPH. The study included 134, 137 and 134 stallion and mare records for the traits overreach, term and acuteness, respectively. All measurements were recorded in MP4 video format with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 megapixels and at 60 frames per second. All traits were measured three to five times (once per stride), and each trait was analyzed. KINOVEA software version 0.9.5 was used to analyze the measurements. A multivariate repeated measures animal model with sex effect was used to estimate the variance components for each trait using WOMBAT software. The results showed heritability of 0.411, 0.476 and 0.405, for the traits of overreach, term, and acuteness, respectively. Repeatability was high in all traits (> 0.70). Genetic additive correlations ranged from -0.30 to 0.49. It can be concluded that overreach and term have high heritability values, which allows these traits to respond better in a selection process, unlike acuteness, which has a moderate heritability value.