BREEDING YOUR FRIESIAN ( Aust. & NZ )

INTRODUCTION

Friesians are large horses and like all large breeds take a little longer to mature. Typically your Friesian will continue growing and developing in body up to five and possibly in some breeding lines up to seven years of age. Generally Friesians are bred at 3 years of age though this needs to be an individual assessment by each owner as some horses may not be sufficiently mature to breed at this age. It is always a good idea to have your mare inspected by a vet prior to breeding to ensure that the mare is sufficiently mature, healthy and capably of carrying a pregnancy to term.

There are also a number of decisions to be made regarding the stallion selection and method of breeding. 

• Do I breed to a Studbook Stallion?

  • how do I go about it given that there are no Studbook Stallions in either Australia or New Zealand? 

  • what are the chances of success and likely costs of breeding using AI or ET? 

• Do I use an Australian Breeding Permit Stallion?

• What will be the registration status of my foals? 

• How do I know if a particular stallion is suited to my mare? 

• How do I find out the quality of the foals produced from a particular stallion? 

• What is the 'In-breeding Co-efficient' and how does it effect me and my foals? 

Hopefully the information on these pages will go some way to providing you with a few answers and raise even more questions that you will endeavour to find the answers to before you proceed with your breeding. The information on these pages is intended to raise awareness of the numerous considerations breeders should take into account when breeding their Friesian. 

Each  animal should be considered individually, what is appropriate for one Friesian may not be the best choice for another Friesian. Other pages you should visit are Registration, and FPS.

ROAD MAP TO PRODUCING A FOALBOOK FOAL

As you can see from the above map, the quickest way to breed an FPS Foalbook Foal is to start with a Foalbook Mare ( naturally the same result is achieved using Studbook Mare, Ster Mare etc etc but as a minimum your mare should be at least Foalbook) and breed her to an FPS approved Studbook Stallion. This will require an AI breeding as there are NO Studbook Stallions in either Australia or New Zealand. NO other combination will produce a Foalbook Foal within a single generation.

The only other route to breeding a Foalbook Foal is through the breeding of a B Book1 mare for three (3) consecutive generations to FPS approved Studbook Stallions. This naturally will take some years as not only do you have to achieve an AI full term pregnancy each time but you have to produce fillies to continue the line of breeding. It would be reasonable to assume that a number of colts would also be produced whilst attempting this route and in that situation you would need to breed the mare again and try for a filly the next year and then continue on until you achieved three 'unbroken' generations from Studbook Stallions. The third generation foal will be eligible for entry to the FPS Foalbook. 

 Breeding purebred Foalbook Friesian foals is certainly a challenge though the satisfaction derived from breeding a fine example of one of the equine world's most magnificent animals is ample reward for your efforts and knowing you have done your best to add to the numbers of quality Friesians in Australia or New Zealand should also give you a sense of pride. Good luck with your endeavours and we hope you are blessed with lots of magnificent Friesians.