L'allevamento del cavallo anglo-arabo in Sardegna

Horse breeding in Sardinia has a long tradition and is very spread in all over the region. In the last years it is suffering a strong crises, even being characterized by a good level of management, and wide homogeneity of the main breed, the Anglo-Arabian, which represents nearly the total Italian production of this breed. This work aims to have an overview of the sector. 131 horse farms were visited to obtain information on their animals and management. In average in each farm there are 9.3 heads and 2.2 mares. Only 23% of the farm is held as main activity of the owner, in 30% of cases horse breeding is a collateral activity associated to a different main species (ovine, bovine, pig etc.), in the other cases it is held as a secondary activity. Only in 17% of cases the horses are prepared and took to the competitions, in the other cases they are only produced (56%) or even tamed (19%). The adult animals in reproduction are 25% of the total. The ratio foals/mares in the years 2005-2009 vary between 0,4 and 0,5 and in the last season the percentage of born foals Italian saddle overcame that of Anglo-Arabian. This tendency can lead in few years to the risk of reduction of the spread homogeneity reached after long time of selection and improvement of the Anglo-Arabian