The Icelandic horse is one of the purest horse breeds in the world, reaching an average 140 cm (13.3 hh) height at the withers and weighing 340 kg. The conformation is rectangular and compact, with a sloping croup, and a long, thick mane and tail. The breed is most known and appreciated for the...

This chapter introduces the stallion as a breeding animal, and the general training and management principles that should be borne in mind when keeping stallions.

This chapter describes the interactions between the horse and its digestive tract microbes and the role of mitochondrial genetics on evolution, inheritance and racing performance.

This article describes the different types of mating and selective breeding systems in horses.

This chapter describes the breeding of horses with specific coat colours and patterns and their genetic characteristics.

This chapter describes the phenotypic and genetic characteristics of horse breeds with the leopard complex spotting coat colour and pattern.

This chapter describes the molecular genetics of the Cream, Dun, Silver and Champagne genes responsible for coat colour dilution in certain horse breeds.

This chapter describes the genes and inheritance for the black, bay and chestnut coat colours in certain horse breeds.

This chapter presents basic information on the evolution and domestication of horses highlighting the following: earliest ancestors of horses; role of climate and environment on the evolution of horses and archeological evidence for domestication of horses. Additional topics were also presented...

This chapter presents a brief description of a few breeds of horses that will be mentioned in subsequent chapters. The descriptions includes population, landrace, related groups of horses, the relationship of the breeds to each other and the level of selection applied by breeders. Among the breeds...