STUDY ON SEVERAL BODY DIMENSIONS IN LIPIZZANER HORSES

M.G. Doliş, C.G. Șonea, V. Maciuc, Claudia Pânzaru

Abstract
    The Lipizzaner is one of the oldest modern horse breeds in Europe, with a history of about five centuries, formed in the Lipizza Stud Farm. Lipizzaners are gentle, intelligent, docil, and very sensitive horses, which have skills for academic dressage discipline. In Romania there are two valuable Lipizzaner populations, at Sâmbăta de Jos (Brașov County) and Beclean Stud farm (Bistrița Năsăud County), but also many valuable horses from breeders that appreciate this breed.
   The present paper refers to a morphological study, performed on six adult horses, owned by a breeder from Botoșani County. The study included several body dimensions, including those from the ranking sheet: the height at withers (155.17 ± 1.76 cm), the thoracic perimeter (182.83 ± 1.91 cm) and the cannon perimeter (20.33 ± 0.64 cm), based on which there were calculated: the dactylo-thoracic index (11.12 ± 0.05%), the skeleton index (13.10 ± 0.07%), and the massiveness index (117.83 ± 0,09%); the data obtained attest the fact that the analyzed horses are within the breed standard.