A bit of advice from Friesian owners

[littleshetland]

Although I've owned horses for over 30 years and am a YO, I am new to breed of Friesians.

I acquired a young one 6 months ago (got him from Holland) he's 4 in May. He's been beautifully started and I've been lunging and riding him a couple of times a week with the odd full week off here and there. All's well, except that he does seem to get rather tired. His flatwork sessions are about 20 - 25 mins long max with plenty of walking and stretching between exercises. Hacking out involves mostly walking roadwork (plenty of stopping and chatting to admirers!), ambling about, looking a t the view and a little trotting - I suppose his maximum hack time is approx 1 hour and 20 mins. I very rarely do him 2 consecutive days in a row. He's eating well (massive amounts of ad lib haylege and Hay plus 2 feeds of fibre nuts and chaff) and approx 6 - 8 hours of quality tun out every day. He looks gorgeous and seems happy and settled. Am I making the mistake of comparing him to the more modern model of sports horse? I've always had warmbloods or TBs or TB crosses. Am I correct in assuming that he will need more time to mature and develop more stamina? Should I just leave him be for a few more months? Friesian experts.........Your opinions please! thanks.

 

[Keenjean]

This could be me writing this post!! My Frisian mare will be 4 this year & similarly gets tired very quickly. I backed her myself and have found she is taking a lot longer to not just flake out after 20 mins. I must say that in the last 2 weeks this does seem to be improving finally. I'll be watching this with interest

 

[khalswitz]

I've not had Friesians myself, but riding bigger cob types and draft types like Clydesdales I found the same thing - that they got tired quickly, particularly young ones. Blood horses have higher natural fitness, and even when not fit they have more 'go' about them - I've known TB crosses that would keep jumping even though unfit and after laming themselves from it. Heavier types don't have that 'go', so let you know more when they are tired.

Think about taking a big WB XC for example compared to a TB - it's a totally different experience.

It will just be building up fitness, and will probably take longer than a blood horse. Look at a good oldfashioned fitness routine that would have been designed for a heavyweight hunter - that will work better than anything else.

 

[Four Seasons]

You need to build her stamina up more, just time and patience. As said above, some breeds need more time, Friesians are one of them. 20 minutes flatwork isn't going to build up stamina. You need to "push" your horse over it boundaries. A 4 year old can easily have a 45 minute session, depending on the level of work.

 

[Kelpie]

Yep, we have a Fresian and definitely a slow burn in terms of building up fitness & strength..... and even now as a 8yo (had him since a rising 4yo) in fact maintaining top end fitness is tough! He's a world apart from what we can get in fitness terms from our other horses! (though he does look gorgeous!)

 

[Keenjean]

I think you possibly misunderstood what I meant Four Seasons, I do push her boundaries and she is schooled for longer than 20 minutes but now she has stopped downing tools after 20mins because she's knackered.

 

[twiggy2]

a 1hr 20 min hack is too much for any three year old in my book, I get fed up with 20 mins here and there so I did not back my mare (native cross) till she was rising 6, she did not manege schooling till rising 7 as I think hacking out is more interesting and encourages them to be more forward thinking.

the fact your youngster is showing signs that they tire easily indicates (to me) that they are not ready to be doing the work they are being asked to, unless of course there is an underlying health problem

 

[TarrSteps]

Be aware, too, that any horse not built for the job will struggle more than one that finds it easy. Changing the naturally inclined way of going is a lot more work than shaping a young horse with a lot of natural ability. Also. carriage bred horses tend to want to go with the back down and a lot of knee action, which increases concussion. This will be even more pronounced when the horse gets tired so has to be weighed against the need to build fitness. This is no reason not to enjoy the horse and help it develop optimally, it's just about assessing the individual.

My personal experience is Freisians, despite the way they look, are a bit 'weak' and need patient developing, especially in the canter.

 

[Keenjean]

Completely agree tarrsteps, it is definitely a case of slowly slowly building fitness up from what I'm finding, striking the balance between building her up and not pushing her too hard or too fast. My horse is 3/4 friesian and does not have the 'up periscope' or high knee inclination as much as a pure bred but I am very aware of making sure when I ride her she works from behind and over her back as much as possible due to the breed characteristics. She is just for me to enjoy and will be ready to compete when she's ready so I am very happy to play the long game.

 

[littleshetland]

Thank you all very much for you input on this. As I said, I'm new to this breed although have previously owned a gelderlander (he made it to advanced dressage) and he shared the same kind of build as the new friesian, but had more stamina - I suppose I was rather taken aback by Friesians sudden lack of 'fuel in the tank' (if you see what I mean!). I honestly don't think theres any underlying health issues - he looks a picture of health, and when starts work sessions , he's all go and wants to do nothing but please, he just gets, well, tired....

I will give him more time and build him up slowly - Once again, thank you all very much, and if you can think of any more pearls of wisdom for a first time friesian owner - please tell all!!

ps. Tarrsteps - I see what you mean about the canter!

 

[madlady]

I've got 4 friesians and yes they are slow maturers. Very quick to learn though

My 12yo mare didn't fully mature until she was 7/rising 8. Even now she isn't the most energetic horse in the world but, once she is fit, she will go all day. I've found that they do 'let down' their fitness quite quickly. To get her up to full fitness I need to ride her (long ish hacks as my schooling days are over ) for at least an hour and a half a day at varied paces and then I tend to double that at weekends. Once I've got her fitness up she will happily go out for a full days ride and still get back home with fuel in the tank but if I miss a day or 2 riding then I can feel it immediately. She is always forward going though and will have the odd strop/special moment but on the whole very laid back.

The 2 younger ones (5yo stallion and 5yo mare) are different again, stallion is extremely lazy, overly laid back and even when he's been stood in for the odd day doesn't get in the slightest bit fizzy - still plods around as if he hasn't a care in the world.

The 5yo mare however is completely different - she is very lively and always has fuel in the tank. A day off/in for her means a difficult ride for me and the more work she does the more she wants to do. The rides are getting longer and longer and she has started having 3 45min schooling sessions per week (my niece is riding her) - even after those she is still full of energy.

I would say bring yours into work every day - even if some of the days are long reining - as I've found that's the best way to get the stamina up. Our stallion does drive but the only way to get and keep him fit enough is for him to be working every day (even if not massively long sessions) we did that over last summer with him and it worked wonders - we just did short (20 min) sessions every day. He is still growing and maturing so I didn't want to push him much more than that. He's had some of the winter off due to weather but coming back into work again now.

Bloodlines with friesians can also make a significant - how is your boy bred?

 

[littleshetland]

Ooh gosh - 4 friesians! You sound like you could be my font of all knowledge! His sire is Jasper 366 (stb Sport - preferent) and his dam is Dille S (stn ster+Sport). His Grandsires are Gradus 356 and Olof 315 and his Grandams are Antje Ut De Mieden and Wietske Van De Kommerdijk.

Does this mean anything to you? (to be quite honest, it doesn't mean a great deal to me....) He's a very laid back chap considering his tender years (almost 4) and is , of course, very beautiful (all that fabulous mane and tail!)

I do agree with you, he's VERY clever, and picks things up extremely quickly. He is supposed to be a more modern 'sport' type - his legs are longer than traditionally bred ones and he's not as upright through the shoulder, so I can see medium/extended trot being a possibility one day in the future, and considering I've been used to more traditional warmblood types for dressage, he moves very nicely. I did hack him this morning for about an hour and half and he wasn't completely knackered when we got home, so things are looking up!

Any more helpful advice gratefully accepted!

 

[madlady]

Welcome to the wonderful confusing world of freisian ownership

My retired broodmare (now 21) is the more old fashioned type but my other 3 are classed as 'sport'. They have longer legs, finer coat, and aren't quite as upright but big girl still has a massive shoulder and I have really struggled with saddles for her. Her extended trot is to die for and she finds piaffe quite natural (especially when waiting at road junctions!) The 2 younger ones are home bred so we did do an awful lot of research into the stallions first and we've also had a number of visits to the central stallion inspections in Holland which is an amazing experience.

Jasper 366 is a very well known sire and even though he isn't particularly tall himself (compared to some of the others) he competes to a decent level at dressage in Holland (GP I think but could be wrong) if you google him you should get some videos. He's also produced some very good offspring - probably the most noted is Beart 411 - who has won the championship. Jasper isn't known as one of the 'hot' stallions so his stock are slower to mature and will need to build up a good level of fitness for you to get the stamina and impulsion that you need. I personally thought that Jasper was a bit over cresty (seemed to have fallen crest the last time we saw him) and seeing as the mare we wanted to put him to didn't have the longest neck in the world we decided not to.

If you want to see what a good friesian can do at dressage then look for video's of Ielke 382 - he is amazing and shows just what they can be capable of.

I'll try my best to answer questions for you and am always happy to wax lyrical about friesians but if you are on FB there is a Friesian horse owners group - a real friendly bunch who are happy to help wherever they can and some of them are already out competing dressage. I decided not to go down that route as I really don't enjoy competing any more - it's been a real experience breeding and bringing them on though. They have to be the friendliest horses i've ever met!

 

[littleshetland]

Thank you so much for the information on my boys' pedigree - really interesting, and I shall look up his daddy on the internet. I'm pleased to say my boys already 16.1 and it looks like he's going to get bigger (he's grown about 1.5 inches in 6 months. Thank you so much once again, - unfortunately I'm not really a facebook girl, but if I've any more questions I'll look for you on this forum - perhaps I could PM you?

 

[madlady]

Of course you can pm me I'm always happy to talk friesians.

Your boy sounds lovely BTW