Livestock Studies 2010, Vol 50, Num, 2     (Pages: 091-101)

The factors affecting horse racing performance

Yavuzkan PAKSOY 1 ,Necmettin ÜNAL 2

1 Veteriner Hekim, Türkiye Jokey Kulübü, Yesiloba Hipodromu, Adana
2 Ankara Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Zootekni Anabilim Dalı, Ankara
- In the past, horse breeding had an important place in the agriculture, military, transportation as well as riding and the purpose of horse breeding has changed throughout history. Today, horse breeding is generally performed for equestrian sports, especially racing. So, horse racing performance is an important character in horse breeding. Horse racing performance is influenced by genotype and body structure of horses and various environmental factors such as husbandry, nutrition, exercise, age, distance, sex, handicap weight, the rider's condition, dam age and diseases. To be achieve the success, the factors affecting horse racing performance should be taken into consideration during implementing of improvement programs for horse racing performance. In this review, brief information about factors that affect horse racing performance are given. Keywords : Horse, Racing Performance, Environmental Factors