- Horses have been bred in Friesland, a province in northern Holland, for over two thousand years. Today’s Friesians were influenced by crossbreeding with Andalusian horses in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, at the time of the Spanish occupation of the Netherlands. During that time, Fresian horses were gaining a reputation not only as ideal dressage horses, but also as war horses. in the seventeenth century, there were strict rules for breeding Friesians, and the horses flourished. But around the middle of the nineteenth century, Friesians began to lose the value they had once known. Buyer requirements at that time were for heavy horses to work the land. The Friesian, therefore, seemed doomed to die out.
- In 1878, a group of Friesian horse breeders formed a society with the aim of preventing the original Friesian race from dying out. The original breeding records of this society listed 8 Friesian stallions and 10 mares. By 1896, the stock had grown to 133 mares and 7 stallions. In 1913, the horses took a downward with only 3 stallions. To save the race, another society was formed to monitor the quality of the horses. As a result, the Fresians today are popular leisure horses, well suited to both riding and driving in harness. Many breeding areas throughout the world have been added to the original one in Friesland, particularly in the United States, Australia and Germany.
Friesian Horse Facts
Leave a reply