Buying Friesians from Holland

Video Provided By:  barryhook2   This 7yo Friesian was imported already “broken” from Holland and had 2 years driving experience as a single and a pair. His owner wanted to do commercial work with him and purchased him as being suitable for commercial work, however as this film shows, in our opinion he was not suitable as he was not safe on the roads. It was expected that this Friesian would be imported from Holland, and be put alongside the owner’s other horse so that they could begin doing commercial work as a pair, however he was not up to standard and needed further training before this occurred. There are many pitfalls in buying horses, especially purchasing horses untried from abroad. In these cases it can be difficult (and expensive) to send the horse back. We hear from many people who have bought horses from abroad and experienced difficulties when they attempt to drive them, because they do not behave as expected. There are different standards of breaking horses to drive all over the world and even in this country standards vary from one trainer to another – what one person considers to be “good to drive” may be entirely different to another person’s viewpoint. We are not saying that every friesian purchased from Holland is bad in traffic, however we have had many horses sent to us with issues that have been imported and needed further training. At the end of the film we compare this horse to a pair of 3yr old Friesian stallions that we broke, during their 2nd ever week in harness, and also with a 4yr old gelding that we broke during his first ever week in harness, showing how they react to the same type of traffic. This is why we believe that the current system of insuring horses for commercial work is flawed. Technically, this horse could be insured for doing horse-drawn weddings and funerals because he is over 4yrs old and has had over 6 months driving experience. However he is not good in traffic and could be dangerous when driven in a busy environment. Compare this with the young, newly-broken horses, who are calm and confident when faced with the same traffic, and who could not be insured for commercial work yet because of their age. The old saying “quality not quantity” applies here – it is not how long they have been driving for, it is how well that driving has been done that is key. This is why we believe that proper initial training is so important. More films showing this horse’s progress with us will be coming soon. Horse Drawn Promotions – Breaking horses to harness. Subscribe to our channel: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_c…