Recently, the BLUP breeding values have been re-estimated and published in the Studbook of Origin for the Icelandic horse, WorldFengur.com (WF). In total, breeding values for 479,960 Icelandic horses are available this time. This applies to all horses registered in WF that have a “valid” FEIF ID, i.e. an ID that includes information on both country and year of birth and the gender of the horse. The breeding value estimation is based on a total of 35,091 breeding evaluations. Furthermore, the testing of 1,000 horses was considered for the Gait keeper gene (DMRT3).

The breeding value prediction is divided between the following countries: Iceland 21,949, Sweden 4,370, Germany 3,643, Denmark 2,744, Norway 1,246, Austria 374, Holland 298, Finland 291, USA 226, Canada 117, Switzerland 102 and Great Britain 39. The BLUP indices for the virtual mate selection has also been updated.

Photo: Anna Gðmundsdóttir, photo competition 2022