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Date Posted: 05:09:14 01/11/09 Sun
Author: Alex
Subject: It seems the breed is doomed!!!!

I know there are alot of people who will shout at me for saying this - but I was horrified to see the results of this years stallion keuring and the horses that won it. It seems the stallion that won it - and if you look at it's scores you will see for yourselves - it is a sickle hocked, sway backed long tubular horse, that even the judges admitted would be fine as a coaching horse as it has a fancy front action, although its backend doesn't engage - so wouldn't be any use for riding.
And the runner up Doitsen is an even longer weak backed animal - but again flashy front action - are they purely breeding for the show ring like the arabs/welsh D's etc. to the point where the show horses are just that and no good outside it or become a separate type??
Is it just me or am I the only one who when watching any of these horses trotting round the arenas that these animals have to hollow their long weak backs to achieve the height of the trot???!!!! A flashy trot is all very well but the horses are hard pushed and need years of training to do it under saddle and often end up with joint problems because of the excess wear.
Do the judges not want a horse that is useful as a riding animal too - although I have to say what use is a long backed animal for driving either as the power should come from the backend, a long backed animal can't engage its bum at all so has to use the shoulders instead - pretty difficult when you are doing such a flashy trot!!!
And thier inbreeding numbers are so high, I thought they had to be under 5%, and apparently the horses were very highly strung too and one was even weaving!!!! Am gob smacked really that such poor examples of a once beautiful breed are now winning purely because they have a fancy trot!!!

Have also been doing loads of research into all the genetic problems that friesians get - OMG - the breed will go extinct if something is not done, and soon, they are disasters waiting to happen. I'm all for going for a breed because lets face it they are beautiful to look at and are usually nice willing horses, but at what point do we sacrifice the health of an animal for the sake of its looks - the horse world is becoming like the pedigree dog world where money is the only thing that matters!!
I'm finding more and more people having temperament problems with thier friesians - they are increasingly becoming highly strung - is the breed not supposed to be famed for its calm willing nature and its all round abilities?

Even found a top friesian trainer/breeder in holland admitting that there is a problem with the depth of girth of the modern stallion and the width of their chests - just see any of the modern stallions to get what I'm talking about - they are becoming so narrow and shallow that is is greatly affecting thier heart and lung room and therefore their stamina and that heavier horse blood is going to have to be introduced at some point in the future - yet they are trying to breed out the baroque type as it is not fashionable!!!!!!

When I first went into breeding friesians there was hardly anything about all the genetic problems as so many breeders keep quiet if they do have any problems as they do not want thier bloodlines tainted as it were so keep quiet, am quite shocked now at the extent of the problems and the increasing fertility problems, even if no one does anything they will die out naturally as they are becoming increasingly infertile, is it not worrying that so many friesians fail the keurings on fertility and OCD - does that not reflect badly on the breeding program - should the numbers getting through not be increasing with all the efforts going into supposedly improving the breed??

I am most likely going to get alot of angry posts about this but someone has to highlight the problems and not just pretend everything is fine - I care about the horses at the end of the day - not the money!!!! Don't get me wrong I love my friesians but I can see why ever increasing numbers of people are leaving the FPS behind and crossbreeding. Ever wonder why there are only a handful of breeders in the UK - if that and we are just a stones throw from Holland?!

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