AraboFriesians  -  Black Athletes

A touch of desert Arabian blood makes them specially tuned  Friesians 

find more and more enthusiasts among equestrians

Some 400 years ago, during the time of the Spanish occupation from 1568 to 1648, the local

Friesian farmers were forced to use Spanish stallions with Arabian blood on their mares. The

result was an immensely athletic breed of horse which is found in the ancestry of Orlov

trotter and the Morgan, among others.

Then around 1900, to save the Friesian from extinction, the horses had to be made suitable

for agricultural work. Unfortunately, this development cost the breed its lung and heart volume.

When during the 1960s, Friesian horses disappeared from international driving and dressage

arenas, some breeders decided to return to the roots. These experts began to search for the best

desert Arabian blood, which had already been introduced into the breed 400 years ago, to use

on carefully selected Friesian mares. They chose the well-known elite stallion Gharib, a straight

Egyptian stallion at Marbach State Stud, in order to improve the following characteristics: 

endurance, toughness, lung and heart volume. 

The means a quick return to a normal pulse and

a better ability to give off warmth through a finer skin and different muscular structure. The

result in the 2., 3. and 4. generation have been horses that have been very successful in sports.

For eight successive years, a team of AraboFriesians have won the Belgian four-in-hand

championships, for many years they have been regularly placed among the TOP TEN in

international driving competitions, including world championships. More recently, AraboFriesians

have also competed successfully in dressage.

It was great advantage for the breeding of AraboFriesians, that the pure Friesians had been

rigorously selected for beauty and movement. This meant that in breeding Arab-Friesians, the

main emphasis could be placed on athletic ability. As a result, the horses uniformly look like

Friesians and are very athletic. Most buyers of AraboFriesians are former warmblood owners,

so that pure Friesians and AraboFriesians do not compete against each other.

AraboFriesians are not just simple crosses between Friesians and Arabians. They should carry

5 to 20 % selected desert Arabian blood and look like pure Friesians, with slightly less fetlock

hair and finer heads. They have smooth gaits and enjoy moving. They have great endurance

and toughness and are thus suitable for the toughest sport competitions. One of the most

important aspects is their disposition: it is the "golden disposition" of the old 

proven Friesian bloodlines.

Most breeding stallions come from the Ritske and Age lines, the old Friesian sire lines known

for their athleticism. Since 90 % of today`s Friesians are decended from the Mark sire line,

which is only rarely found among AraboFriesians, all 231 Friesian dam lines can be used for

breeding. If pure Friesians are used, lines free of Mark blood are preferred, in order to get 

the sport certificate (see below).

The breeding goal is 10 to 20 % Arabian blood, so that the horses look like Friesians with their

typical way of moving, and have the endurance and toughness of the Arabian. The foals

receive full papers and equine passports. Foals that promise to be particularly athletic, receive

the "sport certificate" The sport certificate is the highest accolade in AraboFriesian breeding

and a necessary prerequisite for a potential breeding stallion.

These horses are bred specifically for performance. AraboFriesians should be able to compete

against the best warmblood horses.

The breeding stallion Yk Dark Danilo competed for four years as the leading horse in a four-in-

hand team among the world elite, in the world championships and in the indoors, until he was

trained for dressage in 2005. In the same year, he was Reserve Champion in his class in

Belgium.

AraboFriesians are equally for dressage and driving.

The European AraboFriesian Society today has daughter societies in France and in Germany.

There is also great interest in these baroque sports horses in the USA, Canada, Spain,

Switzerland and Britain.

Informations:         Günter Erny   

phone 07131/6499884, cell phone 0172-7482035, fax 07131/179426