organize a core of control animals, and conduct objective and systematical ongoing measuring of genetic potential of the individuals for several years.
At the same time, an attempt shall be made to characterize a group of DNA markers that register the effect of genetic improvement that has already occurred on the Polo Argentino horse, which will enable us to distinguish the genetic composition of the horse today, highly selected, from the original breeds used in founding the breed, and to determine“ how much” Polo Argentino a horse with no known pedigree has. This“ selection trace” will be the first approximation to determine which the genetic variations are that cause a horse to have a sports performance that is more significant than another, with the aim of being able to provide breeders in future with the tools of genetic forecast that may be employed with relative reliability in new-born colts and fillies and even embryos, through their combination with advanced assisted reproduction techniques.
Finally, in the long run, it is our ambition to combine these two fore-mentioned approximations in order to be able to predict genetic merit through genomic valuation techniques, so that progenies of the animals assessed may have superior traits for the selection goal( such as the ability to play; speed; morphology; temperament; physical aptitude, etc.), through a simple DNA test.
253