Characteristics of the Haflinger Horse from the rider's point of view and its importance when buying a horse

Previous studies have shown that for many horse buyers, the breed is of less importance when buying horses than, for example, the character of a horse. Against this background, the present study deals with the question of whether equestrians associate different breeds with special (personality) traits. For the Haflinger Horse, it was also examined whether the specific evaluation of the breed have an influence on the purchase probability. Therefore, 1,518 equestrians were asked to evaluate the breeds Haflinger Horse, German Riding Pony and Icelandic Horse in an online survey. The results show that equestrians clearly distinguish between the breeds. Furthermore, the evaluation of the Haflinger has a higher explanatory power for the purchase probability of this breed than the importance of the same characteristics in a horse in general. The probability of buying a Haflinger increases in particular if the participants evaluate the breed positively in terms of appearance and performance, which underlines the importance of these characteristics in the breeding and marketing of a breed. Thus, the results show that the character traits generally considered important by equestrians does not necessarily influence the decision for a breed, as this seems rather be influenced by visible features of the horse.