The endangered Menorca horse from the Balearic Islands (Spain) is selected for its economically
viable traits, such as conformation and dressage performance, while maintaining the
maximum possible genetic variability. The aim of this work was to describe the morphology
of the Menorca horse and to analyse the conformational variation among the different
performance aptitudes of the males (classical dressage, Menorca dressage and leisure) using
47 body measurements and 10 body indices. The data consists of 147 females and 200 males.
The Menorca horse can be characterised as an animal of quadrangular format, slim figure
with thin and long limbs, with the greatest values for height and length found in the males.
The Duncan and principal component analysis with non-linear iterative partial least-squares
algorithm discriminates the Menorca dressage group mainly by its differential hind limb
angulations. Both the classical and Menorca dressage groups showed well-balanced body
proportions for sport performance
