Research Article

MORPHOLOGICAL DISTANCE BETWEEN KONIK HORSES AND KONIK CROSS-BRED PONYS

Marcin Komosa, Hieronim Frąckowiak

Uniwersytet Przyrodniczy w Poznaniu

1. Acta Sci. Pol. Zootechnica, 7(3-4), 2008, 45‒60

Abstract. The investigation was carried out on the population of 104 Konik horses and 24 Konik cross-bred ponys. Among ponys there were 14 cross-bred horses of the first generation and 10 cross-bred ones of the second generation. Each individual was characterized by 25 measurements. On the basis of the Principal Components Analysis it was stated that there is a distinct metric differentiation between pure Konik horses and ponys of the second generation. A few ponys of the first generation were metrically similar to some individuals of Konik horses. Thanks to the one-way ANOVA and the LSD – test some features of the greatest importance for differentiation horses were found. Ponys of the first and second generation have significantly longer lower parts of legs than Konik horses. These body parts were mainly forearm, fore autopodium (the whole segment of manus), crust and hind autopodium (the whole segment of pedis). In turn the length of the trunk became absolute shorter in the second generation of cross-bred ponys.

Keywords: breeds of horses, Konik horse, morphology, ponys, zoometry