A Novel Approach to Establish Breed Type and Standards for an Equine Breed: Persian Kurdish Horse

Persian Kurdish Horse constitutes a group of horses traditionally bred and used by Kurdish People who have lived and occupied today's western provinces of Iran for several millennia. Although very well-known for their unique characteristics, standards of this socalled breed of Iranian native horses have never been established. This study was designed to document and validate anecdotal information that has been passed along generations of Kurdish Horse breeders about unique physical characteristics and performances of this native horse breed of Iran. The first author traveled to provinces with larger numbers of Kurdish Horses in Iran and conducted personal interviews with 114 of well-known Kurdish Horse breeders. Questioners were completed. Then, the degree of concordance on various physical and performance characteristics of Kurdish Horses that were anecdotally considered as more important traits to identify and define Kurdish Horses was established. Based on such validated data, characteristics with a higher degree of agreement were formatted into a proposed “Breed Type and Standards” for Iranian Kurdish Horses.