Morphometrical and morphological features of Kyrgyz native horses bred in Kyrgyzstan

This study was conducted to determine the body measurements of Kyrgyz horses in different age groups. The body measurements of 27 male Kyrgyz horses belonging to five different age groups (3 years and younger, 4–5 years, 6–7 years, 9–10 and 12 years and older) were taken. The averages of head length (HL), neck length (NL), heart girth circumference (HGC), cannon bone circumference (CBC), height at withers (HW), rump height (RH), rump width (RW), chest depth (CD), front chest width (FCW), body length (BL), body weight (BW) of the horses were 63.22, 78.28, 162.29, 19.74, 139.66, 139.37, 48.62, 66.07, 36.11, 141.70 cm and 315.11 kg, respectively. A significant difference was found between age groups in terms of HL, CBC, CD, FCW and BL levels (P < 0.05). The differences between age groups in terms of HGC (P < 0.01) and BW (P < 0.001) were also significant. A very strong positive correlation (r = 0.926) was found between HGC and BW and a strong positive correlation (r = 0.876) and significant (P < 0.01) was found between HW and RW. At the same time, the coat colours distribution (%) of Kyrgyz horses was determined as 40.74, 22.22, 3.70, 29.62 and 3.70 for bay, gray, black, chestnut and isabelline coat colours, respectively.