Temperament of the Norwegian horse breeds - a questionnaire based study

To increase the populations of the Norwegian horse breeds, it is desirable to improve their competitive edge in the market. One of the declared strengths of these populations are their robust temperament, which has not been described sufficiently to be utilized for breeding purposes. A horse personality questionnaire (HPQ), with grading of 43 behaviourally defined adjectives, was analysed with a factor analysis to condense the temperament of the four Norwegian breeds into main temperamental factors. The analysis consisted of 1018 horses and the respondents was in general handlers or owners of the objective horse. The Fjord horse, the Dole horse and the Nordland/Lyngen shared the same five factors in the analysis; 'anxiousness', 'agreeableness', 'conscientiousness', 'openness' and 'dominance'. The Norwegian coldblooded trotter shared the same five factors, but in addition had a factor identified as 'excitability'. In total, the factors explained a maximum of 44% of the variance, which is somewhat less than other studies using the HPQ or similar. An expansion of number of adjectives compared to earlier studies, with skewness in which factor they load on to and more non-loading adjectives, could be an explanation of this. The use of HPQ has contributed to simplify the phenotypic landscape, but for future development of assessing temperamental traits for breeding purposes, a horse personality questionnaire is not recommended, as it is probably highly influenced by personal preferences or possible benefits of the owner. The alternative is impartial observers unknown to the horses, demanding a test arena for the horses, where the observers can base their ratings on the horses' performances.