Historic Notes
Antique Friesian Postcards
Here are three photos which will surely be of interest. They are from the wonderful book: Carriages of the Past;Victorian postcards of the collection of Mario Broekhuis. Published in 1998 by Wim Knijnenburg Produkties. The first thumbnail is of Alva 113 Preferant, yes, that is 113, a very early photo of an Approved Friesian stallion. He is the fifth of six approved sons by De Regent 32 Preferant, son of Prins Hendrik 24. Of the six sons, he is the only to produce approved sons of his…
Het Friesch Paard: History
Here is an excerpt from the history chapter of "Het Friesch Paard" by Petra van den Heuvel, translated into English most generously by Japke Zonneveld. Crusaders In medieval times it took days, but more often weeks or months before news from elsewhere reached towns and villages. And maybe the location of Friesland, so far away for the rest of the Netherlands, was the cause of the development of a special horse breed through the centuries. Black, a proud stance, a beautiful swan neck, a…
Portrait of Pieter Schout on Horseback
I ran across this while flipping through a book of artwork on Amsterdam's Rikjsmuseum. Imagine my suprise to turn the page and find a perfect example of a modern Friesian horse, painted in the 17th century! It seems the Friesian was bred in a more refined form, like that we see today, for quite some time, and the breed only started to get heavier at the beginning of the 20th century, when their use returned to primarily that of a draft horse. I should note that, while the painting seems to…
The Black Brigade
This is an excerpt from a 1971 reprint of The Horse-World of London (1893) By W.J. Gordon, originally published in 1893. The book contains information about all classes of the London equine, from the coal ponies, to the stately carriage horses, to the brewsters horses, to the queen's stables. Although never using their current name, the funeral horses described in the following excerpt are with little doubt what we now know as the Friesian. The descriptions of both appearance…
The Friesian Sjees
Perhaps one of the most iconic symbols of the Friesian's proud driving heritage is the traditional two-wheeled Dutch sjees. The sjees (pronounced "shay-z" as in the French 'chaise' - meaning chair), became popular in mid eighteenth century Friesland as a gig wealthy landowners and their wives would drive out on Sundays and special occasions usually with a single or pair of Friesian horses. The vehicle itself consists of two large 14-spoked wheels measuring almost 5 feet high and a…