Friesians.

I am not biased, :D Not ever... :D Not all Friesians are hot headed. It depends - as with all breeds on their breeding. Some lines are, some are not. My lad is by Brandus. He is a very nice stallion who passes on his nice temperament to his progeny.

I didn't intend to buy a colt, let alone a Friesian, but TBH I couldn't be happier with him. He is rising 4 this year and has managed to charm the wotsits off everyone he has met - horsey or non horsey.

I recently took him away to a clinic with me and he totally turned round the "why bring a stallion to a clinic like this" He made friends with an Exmoor gelding who would kiss his nose thru the stable bars. He even TRIED to make friends with a very anti-social gelding by offering him some of his hay - truely!

Totally second Maiko! If you are thinking of buying a Friesian, make sure you do your homework thoroughly or you may end up with "not quite what you thought"...
 
Awwwww she is perfect - you must be a very proud mum :) Sounds like you have lots of fun years ahead of you aswell with such a well behaved brave girl!
I also like the modern type & everthing about the friesian just sounds perfect to me well except from the initial expense! Lol.
Everyone I have spoke to said the majority are very sweet tempered and loyal, which I would love as my current mare has the attitude of "You can look but you can't touch". Lol.
Then of course there is the lovely paces etc etc etc ...
Aww I can dream for now :(
 
Nakita said:
Awwwww she is perfect - you must be a very proud mum :) Sounds like you have lots of fun years ahead of you aswell with such a well behaved brave girl!
I also like the modern type & everthing about the friesian just sounds perfect to me well except from the initial expense! Lol.
Everyone I have spoke to said the majority are very sweet tempered and loyal, which I would love as my current mare has the attitude of "You can look but you can't touch". Lol.
Then of course there is the lovely paces etc etc etc ...
Aww I can dream for now :(
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If you get a good one you will never regret it. They are like overgrown puppies, they just want to looooove you!! They do need to be taught boundaries as babies though or they will love you so much they will squish you to death lol! They are a big horse and they have to have discipline which i think is where a lot of people come unstuck. They are such nice natured horses i guess people dont like disciplining them, or dont know how to...

They are expensive horses for sure. I could have found plenty of yearling fillies (as my girl was when i bought her) for about 1500-1800 but they are priced at that for a reason - poor breeding/conformation, unregistered or bi-book registered and some i saw looked to be crosses rather than purebred!! My mare cost double that (and some lol) and was worth every penny. I'd definately recommend saving up and getting a well bred, well raised one and if you plan to breed or have it graded i would personally go for a fully registered horse. It took me ten years to save for my friesian lol
 
Someone I know vaguely is selling a 4yo Fresian, not sure of breeding or whether he's true to type or not but could try and find out more info if you want?
 
Brandus 345 is a very good stallion, and has several approved offspring of his own. I find Friesian bloodlines fascinating, it's easy to lose yourself for hours researching different bloodlines.

My two Friesians have very different bloodlines, and are very different horses, one being a complete gentleman and rather aloof, and the other being a hot headed, sharp and spooky powerhouse who is a total mummies boy. I love them both dearly.
 
UnaB said:
He apparently has the most amazing temperment, and I can certainly say that he has passed it onto my girl as i cant fault her temperment! And have you seen his trot?? WOW!
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Was chatting to some people from the Netherlands at the clinic. Apparently they are not showing Brandus anymore due to an ongoing tendon injury. Such a shame.

Panj just wants to cuddle aaaaaaallll the time. :D Not a nasty bone in his body. Certainly a good ambassador for the breed. He has been invited back in September. I was so nervous taking him to the clinic but within 2 days we were working other horses in the school with him and horses leaning over into the school from their field. He was as good as gold. I really could not have asked for any more from a young stallion who doesn't get out and about much.

I realise that he will not get a breeding license in this country but I have him at home and he hasn't caused any hassle at all. Maybe one day... :)
 
They are a great breed, good doers, good feet and beautiful to look at - most of them, but I have to agree with others they do attract alot of novices and people just wanting the look, we've always gelded every colt we've sold as I have visions of a stallion ending up in some box somewhere for the rest of its life!! We had 4 blokes last year wanting a friesian stallion just because of how it would make them look when riding it - none had ever had a stallion or had facilities and only wanted to hack - sigh! - needless to say none of them went away with a horse!!
They are also not really a novice horse, more and more friesians nowadays tend to be very hot tempered and are pretty intelligent so will work out how to get round you and test your boundaries, so do beware when choosing one you meet it first!! There is a company in holland that imports friesians and they don't like you to meet the horse before you buy, and the stallion Tsjerk has a reputation for throwing hot tempered horses so do your research. I don't think I'd ever get a pure again with the way the breed is going, I'll stick to the crossbreds!!!

Always get a vetting done by a vet you choose, any breeder/dealer/owner should insist you have one anyway as it stands both parties in good stead, and if it is a ridden horse get a full 5-stage done with x-rays as alot coming from holland are broken in under 3 years old - being a draft breed they are prone to OCD so really shouldn't be broken until they are 4, and most dutch broke ones are broken in very quickly so are extremely green and need to go back to basics.

I own the stallion Wessel and I have to say love him to bits, he is such a sweet natured genuine horse and he certainly passes it on, I couldn't cope with 3/4 of a ton of randy ****e bag!!!:D And thankfully he is not an approved FPS stallion (we have made it clear on our website by the way!!) as we like the crossbreds - his pure friesian foals can be registered with the FPS though in the b-book but most owners choose not to, we register ours with the sport horse society. We have only ever aimed to breed well put together horses, with nice temperaments regardless of wether pure or cross and so far have been chuffed to bits with all that we have bred and so have their new owners.
My sister and I are actually gving up breeding so we have time to do things with our boys, I'm trying to get my art business off the ground, and we may be moving to Wales at some point and then Canada, we're always working to pay for them so never seem to have much time to do things with them - they are a VERY expensive hobby!!!;) So this year we have decided to give up the breeding side of things and just stick to AI for Wessel, especially after Wessel got badly kicked last year in both stifles by a nutty maiden warmblood mare - he sulked for a week, so not worth risking him again on outside mares, and if my sisters little TB x friesian stallion turns out as hoped we may get some straws off him in the future.

And yes we do crossbreed Wessel as we love the results - if done well and the mares compliment the stallion then I don't see why the FPS have such a problem with it, it's the same sort of principle as using an ID on lighter mares, it's not as if we are crossbreeding friesian mares. Although I have to say alot of people have jumped on the band wagon and crossed friesians with alsorts of fuglies - either purely for colour or just because of the image, and used fugly friesian stallions/mares and ended up supplying the meat man, so it's a hard image to crack that it can produce nice useful horses they're very popular in the US and Australia.

I think the reason friesians are so expensive - the good ones anyway - is because the FPS is the most expensive breed society fullstop! I know they say they are improving the breed and are very selective - but if that were the case why is it there are so many friesians that have terrible conformation/action yet have full FPS papers and premies??!! - it's passing on the message that as long as it's black and can trot it gets a premie??!!! I've seen full papered friesian mare with sweet itch at local sale going for £500 with colt foal at foot and looking more like a stunted fell pony!!
Plus they are such a faff to breed - we always do inbreeding calculations on mares before even considering covering them and I have to say it is very scary the amount of inbreeding that went on, and still does - they have a VERY tiny gene pool and heaps of genetic problems.
We have trawled the internet looking for things after we lost a yearling filly and an older mare to mesenteric colic, and had a friend that lost her 3yr old to an aeortic rupture, and had had at least 50% of all our pure foalings with retained placentas - the rest of the horse population the amount is up to 10%, in friesians it is rising with each generation. The FPS only recently are doing something about the hydrocephaly and dwarfism, and have only listed those 2 problems on their website that is available to the public - although they will be testing stallions but even if they are carriers they will not be removed from the gene pool as they are too valuable!! But they are not very forthcoming about the rest of the problems - they are more concerned that a friesian is not born chestnut (a rare recessive gene in friesians as they used to come in different colours) than wether it could drop dead!
We have asked other breeders if they would also list the problems on their sites to make sure people are aware and know what to look out for - needless to say they won't!!
They have dug themselves into this hole - they started the breed out with just 3 stallions - all of which passed on genetic problems - which they knew about at the time but thought they could breed the problems out and they were crossing half brothers to half sisters etc!!
The fertility is also terrible - mares can be very difficult to get in foal having unusually large follicles, and the vast majority of stallions fail the keurings on semen quality, OCD and most semen doesn't freeze. Stamina is also becoming a problem - some of the top competition drive teams have crossed their friesians with arabs, arabo-friesians, to try and improve this - they have succeded and now have horses that you would never know had any arab in them but can also compete to top levels.

If you look at the FPS statistics on how many mares each approved stallion covers every year and the percentage of live foals born - some are as low as 33% and if you compare statistics from 2005 with 2009 some of the stallions percentage of live foals born has dropped by up to 30%, so it's interesting wether it's a problem with the stallions or with the breeding mare population!
We have listed the genetic problems on our website - at least those we can find literature on and put them on our FAQs page - it's difficult to find info on this topic as it's either in dutch, breeders don't report problems or it's not accessible to the public. Although I think that has gone down like a lead balloon with the FPS, as we have heard alsorts of drivel from them about us - next they'll be saying we're hybridising friesians with aliens!!!:D I don't see why people shouldn't know before they part with a large amount of money so they know what to look out for - they do it for dog breeds!!??? It makes for interesting reading anyway!

I think they need to add new blood back into the breed to help it - the breed was made up of a mixture for starters, if carefully selected andalusian/lusitano blood and arab was introduced back in every so often, you would retain the looks/temperamnet/action but have better health and fertility and more hair - many friesians don't have much hair anymore!?? - but until the FPS stops being so anal about bloodlines it is never going to get better - just worse with each generation. There are many studs worldwide that are setting up new breeding programs adding different breeds into the mix with an aim to try and recreate a healthy friesian.

And Ischa if your mare has severe sweet itch - did you realise it has been shown to be congenital - therefore you could end up with two horses with it. People don't breed from stallions with sweet itch, the same should apply to a mare. Also any reputable stallion owner is unlikely to cover your mare/sell you semen as if the foal does have it - it will look bad for the stallion.

On another note - does ayone know a modern stallion called Jan Oene - we had about 6 people ring us up last year saying they couldn't get hold of the people that own him, I don't know them personally so couldn't help - and no-one seems to have seen any offspring by him despite being at stud for 3 years - just wondering.
Dear god this is a long post - cookies and jelly tots if you got this far!!!:D
 
Alexart said:
On another note - does ayone know a modern stallion called Jan Oene - we had about 6 people ring us up last year saying they couldn't get hold of the people that own him, I don't know them personally so couldn't help - and no-one seems to have seen any offspring by him despite being at stud for 3 years - just wondering.
Dear god this is a long post - cookies and jelly tots if you got this far!!!:D
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http://www.friesian-equine.co.uk/friesian-stud-services.html

Contact details on there.
 
quoto And Ischa if your mare has severe sweet itch - did you realise it has been shown to be congenital - therefore you could end up with two horses with it. People don't breed from stallions with sweet itch, the same should apply to a mare. Also any reputable stallion owner is unlikely to cover your mare/sell you semen as if the foal does have it - it will look bad for the stallion.


there is a very small percentage of chance that it could be Hereditary predisposition may be a factor in Sweet Itch , but its more then likely that However environmental factors play a major part - where the horse is born and where it lives as an adult are at least as significant as the bloodlines of its sire and dam.
,but i have a friend who has used her mare on many occashions that has sweetitch and non of her foals two of which are fully grown have no sign of the condition .
if he does come to have it late on then i will take it as it comes and will not breed from her again ,but till there is more evidence to state it is hereditary , then that will be the time i hold my hands up and say yes it is infact hereditary .as you well may now friesians are more exceptable to sweetitch , then any other types . i have a friend over in the east of Netherland near Germany.
and has told me many friesians over there have problems with sweetitch . she actally owners the mother to my mare
 
For those who are thinking of buying a Friesian, as I stated earlier in this thread, do your homework, but also don't be taken in by the scare mongering and mostly inaccurate tales of doom and gloom that FPS registered Friesians are all nutjobs with ghastly conformation, and are all pre-disposed towards congenital defects and deformities. I can say quite truthfully that I have yet to see any of these FPS registered ghastly misfits that have been referred to elsewhere, let alone seen any of them gaining good scores at a grading (and I've seen quite a few gradings).

Sounds to me as if some people have partaken of too many sour grapes.

You cannot do better than a fully papered FPS registered Friesian, if you want a decent pure bred horse with known parentage and a traceable lineage.
 
Nakita said:
Just wondering if anyone owns one or has had much experience with them? As they seem to be so rare in this country & i have always loved them! :)
Was looking on the Friesians Scotland website and now I reaaaaaally want one but they are soo expensive, even for a youngster that hasn't had much done with it!
Anyway pointless post really, I'm just smitten & doing some wishful thinking ...
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There are a couple for sale on NFED....not totally unaffordable! ;)
 
Thank you everyone for tall the extrememly helpful information :)
I hae been informed of a fill for sale sired by Fabe 348. As you were preiously mentioning hot headed bloodlines etc, was wondering if anyone has any info on him?
 
This is my boy, he origionally came from a dealer in Wales. His grandsire is Tsjerk, he can be a little hot headed but overall I would say he is pretty chilled! He was gelded very late and was a dream to handle as a youngster. Theonly issue I have had with him is his crest has fallen slightly, and it takes a lot of work to build up the muscle to get it looking lovely again. I know a place called Brambletyre Friesians in Sussex which imports a lot of them with good blood lines. I think the lady takes future owners abroad with her to hand pick them.

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There's one for sale on my yard, she's the fully regsitered etc (I think Wessel might be her sire but am not 100% sure) She's a real sweet, gentle mare, great to hack but still a little green in the school.

I've only known one other Friesian and he was fantastic to handle and hack and a real all round type although not quite suitable for a novice, so I've always assumed these were typical breed characteristics.
 
If i were looking to buy another friesian, I personally would go to these people:

http://www.blackhorses.co.uk/

They have the best horses in the country as far as breeding and gradings go (their mare Femma was awarded Model status which is the highest achievement any friesian mare can get!), they are the nicest people you could meet, very honest and very knowledgeable. They only deal in fully FPS registered horses i believe, and import a small number every year, as well as having their own breeding programme they have just started on. I would certainly contact them and go on a waiting list for one of their Femma babies.
 
UnaB said:
If i were looking to buy another friesian, I personally would go to these people:

http://www.blackhorses.co.uk/

They have the best horses in the country as far as breeding and gradings go (their mare Femma was awarded Model status which is the highest achievement any friesian mare can get!), they are the nicest people you could meet, very honest and very knowledgeable. They only deal in fully FPS registered horses i believe, and import a small number every year, as well as having their own breeding programme they have just started on. I would certainly contact them and go on a waiting list for one of their Femma babies.
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:echo: all of that. Femma is glorious, and has had two super off spring this year (one she carried, and one by embryo transfer). Lovely quality horses, and Tracey and Rynardt are lovely honest people.
 
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