Clinical findings of candidate stallions presented for licensing at all German Warmblood horse-breeding associations in 2018-2020.

Background: There is very little information available about the health status of young stallions from the German Warmblood population that will, once licensed, shape the future of equestrian sport and horse breeding.

Objectives: To evaluate the prevalence of clinical findings at licensing examinations of candidate stallions and the influences of season of birth, age at licensing, year of licensing, and the evaluator on the distribution of recorded findings.

Study design: Retrospective observational study.

Methods: Clinical records of 1655 candidate stallions presented for licensing in 2018-2020 were reviewed. Data were provided by all German Warmblood horse-breeding associations and their official veterinarians. Storage and processing of the records was performed using the German equine health database. Generalised linear models were used to determine the influences of fixed effects (season of birth, age at licensing, year of licensing, evaluator) on main clinical findings. The significance level was set at p < 0.05.

Results: No remarks were documented on the clinical examination protocol in 777 of the 1655 horses (47.0%). Furthermore, 51.9% of those stallions with remarks had only one finding documented. The main abnormalities recorded were skin lesions, enlargements on the limbs, and testicular findings. The distributions of several clinical findings differed significantly between the evaluators.

Main limitations: Homogenous study population and retrospective data.

Conclusions: The clinical part of the licensing examination of German Warmblood candidate stallions presented in 2018-2020 rarely revealed abnormalities. The majority of the clinical findings which were recorded are considered to be of minor clinical relevance, implying an overall favourable clinical health status of the presented stallions.