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Friesian riding, training, and troubleshooting thread

38K views 100 replies 23 participants last post by  GoldArmored 
#1 ·
Hey guys, being the major fan of Friesian's I am, I wanted to make a solid resource thread where my fellow friesian lovers can exchange feedback and advice on owning, working, or experiencing this wonderful breed in any way. I personally love to hear peoples experiences with Friesian and Friesian crosses, as I think they are the perfect breed of horse, in beauty, attitude, and work ethic. Plus they are an absolute dream to own.

For this thread I thought we could post riding, training (Keuring, Conditioning or otherwise), management (Handling, Health/Welfare or otherwise), or general questions using a categorizing format.

Formats:

[Training]
[Riding]
[Management]
[General]

For example if I want to give an introduction about myself I would type:

[General]

Hi, my names SunnyBlack online, but you can call me "Sunny" if you'd like. I own a 3 yr old Friesian stud, "Spider," who's going to his first stallion testing during keurings this fall. He's an absolute pleasure to own and a true gentlemanly stallion of excellent quality and temperament. I bought him at 4 months old, received him at 6 months, and immediately went into training where he has been up-to today. He's by Sipke 450 and out of a Sjaard 320 "Full Papper" Star mare.

We work on Dressage mostly (classical methods), but my future goals are to branch out into Driving, and maybe Saddle Seat as I've always wanted to compete in that.

Anybody else? I'd love to meet some of my fellow Friesian people, as there's not many of us on Horse Forum.
 
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#30 ·
Cool I'm interested with what they'll say. If its not too personal could you post your answer here? That way anyone else with similar issues can have possible solutions.
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#31 ·
yes of course! I don't expect a response until Monday since the weekends coming up. That is unless it's a home email instead of a work one, it didn't specify. But anyway, yes I'll post.
 
#32 ·
Here's the response I got
"Kfps and fhana do not show stud colts except as foals ...if they miss that showing, they have to wait till they are three yrs old. *only fillies an be shown as yearlings and two year olds. *Fhana inspections are not the same as horse shows. *All of the issues you have with him should be resolved by the time he is three.
If you have more questions, don't hesitate to ask. "
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#33 ·
Oh thanks! So I was wrong, whether or not u make foal keuring they want you to wait until he's three years of age. Like I said, I don't know why fillies are so closely monitored. But that's the FHANA for you. Glad we could clear that up.
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#34 ·
I would guess its because of breeding? No idea but maybe it would be easier to tell what a mare might throw if her development is watched? No idea.
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#35 · (Edited)
Maybe. Don't be disappointed though, D4E. Consider how nice your boy will present if u use these years to really develop him. And honestly a foal premie doesn't have that much weight on a horse as an adult. Many horses develop very different from when they were foals. Some champion 1st premies never make it to Ster... You can not judge the quality of an adult horse based off its foal inspection. This is a good lesson for all of us. A real judge of quality is its stud book grading as this is a horse that has been inspected and judged as a mature adult. Again don't be disappointed D4E, I'm sure he'll do great at three. :)
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*edit* Kerei, btw I forgot to mention earlier, congrats on your mare making Ster. That is not an easy accomplishment. ;)
 
#37 ·
Or not. Just found out I probably won't be able to afford it and. Being that the chance of making stud book is so very slim it's not even worth blocking out the needed 70 days. I think I might pull my membership next year until I have a use for it. FHANA is crazy.
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#38 ·
I'm a little confused here. Are u talking about approved stallion status? Because if you get passed and invited to holland for central stallion testing then yes that does cost quite a bit of money and takes 90 days. But it was my impression that as long as you get your horse inspected at three and he's of good standard quality he'd make it into the stud book. Grading title or no. Or am I mistaken?
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#39 ·
Yeah apparently if he gets inspected at 3 they want him to go to a 70 day stallion testing. If he doesn't go to the 70 day stallion testing he's not approved for breeding. Basically FHANA "allows" you to breed. If your stallion doesn't pass the testing and invited into the stud book after 70 days he's not "allowed" to breed and if he does FHANA throws a fit. The 70 day test is in Cali.
At least that's how she explained it to me. It's grounds for being booted which is ridiculous.
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#40 ·
"Yes, if they don't pass the testing they aren't allowed to breed OR register offspring .KFPS is the strictest stud book in the world. Thatisnot to say people don't breed out of the registry, But as a fhana rep, *I support the KFPS methodology in breeding."
So grr.
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#41 ·
I thought so. Yes I knew this. This is because Friesians were inbred to survive. This makes the registry very strict about the stallions that would carry the future of the breed. That's the financial and personal responcibilty I have to take on to own a stud. It's not cheep and if they make the cut they always have to e reevaluated every year by the FHANA at keuring. Cross breeding and breeding to non STB mares is not allowed. However this does occur but it's always been my theory that the studs who are doing this are "none papered" or none registered.
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#42 ·
I'm wondering if it would even be worth it to get him into the stud book since because of our performance schedule he wouldn't be available for breeding every year and if he was he would t be available all of breeding season anyway. I'd love for him to be able to pass on Nannings lines but I'm really not sure if him being stud book registered should be a priority being that he wouldn't be available every season.
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#43 ·
Hmm that's really something you should disuss amongst yourself and his support team. If you have a trainer you can talk to them too. For example if Spider made the cut he'd be a showing stud but also a breeding by collecting prior to the showing season so it wouldn't interrupt his schedule too much. This is pretty common against stallions that show. They have a great team of support that makes sure they get the training, nutrition, conditioning, and medical care to maintain a stressful lifestyle of showing and breeding.
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#44 ·
For now I'm thinking I'll show him at 3 and see how that goes. She said to expect paying 20k or up for stallion book testing and that's a large chunk that I can't just throw away of course for something that may or may not work. Lots to think about. Right now I'm leaning towards no for testing.
 
#45 ·
Well you have three years, so don't make any hasty decisions now. And yes Stallion testing is expensive, that's why people considering it put a lot of thought into the quality of their foal, and it's training. A few people in the NWFHC (you should really join us btw :P ) have tried several times with a colt. (several being 2 or 3 times with a few years In between) it's one of those things you can never determin until you have him inspected. You could have someone tell you how to improve your colt but ultimately it's up to the judges.
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#46 ·
Very true. I'm pretty young though and unless I win a lot of money I don't foresee having that kind of chunk change available for anything other than farm support ya know?
We'll see what happens but I'm not putting my heart on it. I still plan to breed him and I still plan to be extremely picky about it. If that's not accepted then so be it.
Does it cost anything to join the community?
 
#47 ·
Yes 50 dollars I believe unless they changed it. Check out our website online. Just google north west Friesian horse club. And I'm pretty young too. (only 22) But I reared a stud with knowing what to expect, plenty of previous experience with babies and stud horses, and with a great support team that's made up of my family, my trainer, my Friesian community, my vet, my groom, my TO person, and my exercise rider. So we're trying to give him the best start at life, and if he still doesn't make the cut, then so be it. I would just be as happy with a quality gelding. Im not saying u need to emulate me, after all everyone has their own preference on caring for their animal, and I'm sure you'll make your best decision on the subject when the time comes, D4E. So dont stress too much. ;)
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#48 · (Edited)
We're about the same age! I'm 23.
He's not my first baby or stud colt by any means. Far from it. My first but not the first I'm worked with trained with or handled. I work with stallions from May-August training with Cavalia (when they're not training on tour) and Cavalo usually and have been since I was 18 so that's nothing new.
He has a big support team. Seattle Cavalia group, Cavalo Equestrian arts when they're around (can't be in florida all the time), Northwest Jousting Associating (my second family), my three vets, farriers, and many other very experienced people from theatrical training through high level professional competition.
My reason for getting him was based on his lines and wanting a potential high performance stallion I could/maybe/might eventually offer to very very select few mares. Although I'd be interested in attempting stallion book it's far far from our top priority. The groups I work with and train with will rarely allow geldings or mares into their training. Stallions have the presence, drive and personality they look for and that's why the majority of Cavalia shows and Ren Faire shows put on by Cavalo have stallions instead of mares and geldings. I ride dressage with my two girls and plan on training him in that as well. Dressage and English pleasure maybe some light jumping later in life if he takes to it. But he's Northwest Jousters black stallion liberty routine with me as his ground master and that along with schooling shows for halter here and there are his training back ground for the time.
I'm not stressed about it. I understand how and why FHANA is so strict but as of now he'll be inspected at 3 or 4 and that'll be it. I think he should have that experience.
 
#49 ·
Cavallia has geldings. They have many geldings, more so than stallions. And stallions are hard to handle, I had actually asked one of the preformer/trainers when they came to Seattle and she said that it's very difficult to focus their mind on their performance so many of the key stallion performers have backups just in case there is an issue. She also told me that their have been times they have "done things on the fly" or "changed the performance" in some way because of a stallion-related issue. Which I can understand. It's hard enough for Spider to train for Dressage sometimes and he's been doing that straight for a year and a half. I can't imagine how hard it is do some horses that change location constantly and have to preform in front of an unpredictable audience. Stressful stuff for any horse. So I respect how hard they work on getting the animal comfortable with the trick so in a performance it can consentrate on the trick and nothing else.

Also I'd love to joust sometime. But maybe when Spider is older and more mature. In the mean time maybe I could learn separately? Seems like a lot of fun. I'm also a part of the northwest Renfair club, but I don't have as much time to join meetings or go to fairs. However I want to experience more stallion-handling jobs, so maybe I'll look into some understudy program through the groups u mentioned since they use many stallions. I want to incorporate stallion management in my career And unfortunately stallions come into my barn every so often, the last one I worked with and trained with left 4 months ago. ;(

Now it's just me and Spider...
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#50 · (Edited)
Cavallia has geldings. They have many geldings, more so than stallions. And stallions are hard to handle, I had actually asked one of the preformer/trainers when they came to Seattle and she said that it's very difficult to focus their mind on their performance so many of the key stallion performers have backups just in case there is an issue. She also told me that their have been times they have "done things on the fly" or "changed the performance" in some way because of a stallion-related issue. Which I can understand. It's hard enough for Spider to train for Dressage sometimes and he's been doing that straight for a year and a half. I can't imagine how hard it is do some horses that change location constantly and have to preform in front of an unpredictable audience. Stressful stuff for any horse. So I respect how hard they work on getting the animal comfortable with the trick so in a performance it can consentrate on the trick and nothing else.

Also I'd love to joust sometime. But maybe when Spider is older and more mature. In the mean time maybe I could learn separately? Seems like a lot of fun. I'm also a part of the northwest Renfair club, but I don't have as much time to join meetings or go to fairs. However I want to experience more stallion-handling jobs, so maybe I'll look into some understudy program through the groups u mentioned since they use many stallions. I want to incorporate stallion management in my career And unfortunately stallions come into my barn every so often, the last one I worked with and trained with left 4 months ago. ;(

Now it's just me and Spider...
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Maybe it's dependent on the group? I work with Julien (can't even begin to pronounce his last name) and he prefers stallions over geldings? I know the touring perfomance tries to even out the number between and match to the riders that regularily work with the horses. Our (seattle) touring goes between Canada and Oregon.
A few from Cavalo as well much prefer stallions because they have more "presence" but they are never allowed to breed not even AI and from the people I've talked to for the studs in Cavalia that's the same mind.
If bred they're "released" so to speak and much more difficult to train and keep focused but it can be done. It's dependent on the trainer and horse. The two trainers I utalize haven't been in the show or on tour for many many years but I'm leaving his training in that level up to their choreography and skill set for exactly what they want from him. Again though this is from what I've personally been told and I'm sure it varies depending on who's talking.
As for the basic under saddle training I can do that myself. For performance I'm going to the people I know have plenty of experience.
If you do go to faire at all this year, I believe it's in Buckley, it keeps changing. I'm usually wandering around or behind the scenes with the horses. Their stallions you'd never know where stallions unless you took the time to look (popcorn ponies not included in that). I'm aiming for my boy to be trained in that manner. They have ques to be study and be big and full of testosterone for their performance but they're trained to dial it back as well.
I love that group. I was disappointed ot hear Ricky won't be joining us this year from what I understand. He's touring with Cavalia or Odysseo I believe it is? Sad face:-(.
I personally don't joust but I work with NJA horses and the people in different roles. They're second family to me going on 7 years now and I'm sure you'd be welcomed with open arms if you're interested. :D
 
#51 ·
Speaking of Cavalia I just texted Julien and he's in Mexico right now! For some reason I thought he was in Oregon with everybody but I guess they extended? That's a trip! wow!
 
#52 ·
Well my goals are relatively simple. I want to be the best Dressage rider I can be, and Spider my Dressage mount. I absolutely love Dressage. Its my favorite form of riding, and I want to get to at least level 3 with Spider. Hopefully after graduation I can work for an respected Dressage Show Barn. I would just die for an opportunity like that! :P Beyond that I want to continue training green horses and problem horses that need to be re-trained, as I love the challenge and effort involved. (It also makes you a great horse handler and rider) I also want to continue working with Stallions, whether thats at a breeding farm, or in a showing barn, or in several of the groups you explained. I simply love working with these regal creatures, and I know and incorporate the dominance and firm hand needed. In addition I would love to continue working on showing Western Pleasure and Reining (seeing how reining is identical to Dressage) Show jumping, Cross Country, and perhaps Driving with maybe working on a cow ranch or something similar to learn natural calf and cutting work. Jousting, trick-riding, vaulting, and liberty would be the iceing on the cake. But I still would like to learn (And I have vaulted at Warm Beach before..) so if you know any opportunities then don't hesitate to PM me. I would really appreciate it. :D

Anyway... We should really get back to the topic of Friesians. Anyone else have any questions or concerns dealing with Friesian Keurings or Part-bred Keurings?
 
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#53 ·
I like your goals and good luck to you!
So yes question.
Black as knight or any other blackening agent. Aren't they illegal? I've read so many places they are and then many places they're not. Even that they might have a show formula. Do you know of any natural coat enhancing agents?

I try to go the natural route for anything and I have a cabinet full of herbs and what not for people and their problems or whatever. A tack full of stuff for horses but nothing yet for coats.
 
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