Some Morphological Traits of Malakan Horses Raised in Turkey

This study was conducted to define the morphological traits affected by sex, region, coat colour, and age. In this study a total of 106 horses, 57 male and 49 female, was used in four age groups (3-4, 5-6, 7-8 and 9-15 years). Descriptive statistics gave the following means: withers height 142.9±0.48 cm, height at rump 142.0±0.46 cm, body length 146.1±0.79 cm, heart girth circumference 163.2±1.09 cm, chest depth 56.4±0.38 cm, chest width 43.9±0.41 cm, cannon circumference 19.1±0.16 cm, head length 56.4±0.38 cm and ear length 12.8±0.16 cm. In this study the frequencies of body coat colour of the sampled horses were bay 45.3%, gray 37.7%, chestnut 6.6%, black 4.7%, isabelline 2.8%, and buckskin 2.8%. It can be said that in Turkey the only draft horse breed is the Malakan horse is a native Turkish horse breeds and it can be crossed to other heavy horse breeds to create a new type or breed.