Home In the latest issue KNHS answers the question: How many Friesians in sport?

KNHS answers the question: How many Friesians in sport?

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Marc-Peter Spahn with Jeroen 535 (Anders 451)

By Alice Booij / KFPS
Photography: © Digishots; Johanna Faber

How many Friesian horses are actually involved in sport? How does this compare to other breeds (studbooks)? Is there a trend, either upwards or downwards? The KFPS studbook submitted these questions to KNHS, the Dutch body that administers all equestrian competitions.

In the breeding of Friesian horses, more and more attention is paid to sporting ability. For several years now, the transition from agricultural horse to the sport horse has been underway and highly visible, and if you look at a Friesian horse in 2024, you will see the difference in conformation and movement. Disposition is also visible in the competitions where the Friesian pearls appear. At least that is how it seems to lovers of Friesian horses. But how is it really? Are there more Friesian horses in sport? How are they doing? And can they compete with other breeds?
At the KNHS all this information is stored in the data center, see the KNHS data collection box. Ilse Ferwerda and Reina Bravenboer from the IT department of the KNHS put the computer to work and retrieved information from competitions between 2017 and 2023 on which they ran an analysis. In total, this involved more than 10,000 Friesian horses whose results were recorded in competition, from which they concluded that the percentage of Friesian horses in sport is increasing. A total of around 2,000 Friesian horses are currently active in sport; which represents a 2% increase over six years.
Highest percentage in dressage: 94%

The Dutch champions: Naomi Hendriks van Warbij/My Black Magic (Gerben 479); Ilse Vossen/Prince Maury van Ravensbos (Epke 474); Demi van Nuys/Maine van de Demro Stables (Teun 505); Denise Speelpenning/Harley fan de Poortershoek (Tsjalle 454); Lilian de Waal/Guds D.W. (Jehannes 484); Henny Roffel/Dom Pérignon TKJ (Jasper 366); Marc-Peter Spahn/ Sjefke (Sipke 450); Marijke Boelen/Arent 515 (Jouwe 485)

The versatility of the Friesian horse is evident from the first analyses. Friesian horses can be found in many different, if not all, disciplines. Of all the Friesian horses for which the KNHS keeps records, the last eight years show that 94% compete in dressage, 12% in ‘mendressage’ riding horse classes, and 4% in driving. The total percentage exceeds 100% because some horses compete in more than one discipline. By the way, of all the Friesian horses in the sport, about 0.4% (40) compete in showjumping, with 0.02% (2) in eventing. Because of the small numbers, this has not been studied further, but it is worth mentioning... To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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