Friesian breeders, advice please.

[cundlegreen]

Somebody I know has asked me to seek advice from you lovely lot as to how she can license her 8 yr old Friesian stallion. She imported him as a 3 yr old, and as she has only used him as a riding horse, she has never got him licensed. When she did enquire off somebody, she was told he would have to grade here (don't know who with) and then go to Holland and do the same there. Anybody know the "ins and outs" of this? Apparently, hes been winning a lot in the showring inhand, and now people are enquiring about using him.
She wants to show him at County shows, and I pointed out that most big shows expect stallions to be licensed, although I don't think anybody checks ( that is, not until there's an accident!) Help would be appreciated.

 

[Daisy11]

hi friesian stallion in the uk are not granted licences its mainly holland ,there are no licenced stallions in the uk .
but she can still breed from him but to register the offspring they would need to be from a fps registered mare . in which case to be registered for papers and passport they would need to contact jane slevin from the friesian horse association of great britain and ireland to get her to send dna sample bags throw ,then your vet would need to dna samples from both mare and sire to get registations papers and passport , the expections your taking about are grading shows where stallion,mares and youngstock are given grades
its not a licence grading .
more info can be found out by fps studbook or fhagbi

 

[cundlegreen]

Thanks very much, Ischa, I'll pass that info on. I don't think shes going to breed pure Friesians necessarily, but she does want to show him at the big shows, and normally its in the rules that the stallion must be licensed. Is there any other society that she could license him with??

 

[Daisy11]

i wouldnt know about other sociertys ,
but the best person to ask would be jane at fhagbi shes alovely woman and can give you all the info you need .
from my experince of shows with friesians , ive noticed there are not many classes for that breed in normal horse shows ,but i know they dont have to be registered at local shows etc not to shore on high levels such as county sorry cant be much help on that

 

[UnaB]

Definately contact FHAGBI

The approval process for stallions is very long, rigourous AND expensive so it is not something any current UK stallion owners have invested in. The stallion has to go through the normal grading procedure (on breeding, temperment, movement and conformation) and then has to go through several weeks of assessment in Holland to test the quality of his gaits, temperment, ability ridden and in harness and his trainability. If he gains approval he then has to produce foals of good enough quality for his approval to remain as the FPS can revoke it if they do not gain premies at Inspections or if they produce a lot of white marks on foals or health problems. Basically, if a stallion is not going to improve the breed he has that priviledge of producing fully FPS registered foals permentantly revoked.

There are very, very few stallions each year who pass these tests so it is not something that you can undertake easily.


ETA: It is forbidden for an approved friesian stallion to be bred to anything other than an FPS registered friesian mare and he will have his breeding rights removed for that also, so if your friend is planning to cross breed him then it would not be a good idea to look into approval.