Net Bytes - November/December 2001
compiled by Jean Sorensen

SKOWRONEK
Grey Arabian stallion foaled in 1908 in Poland. Bred by Antoniny Stud, Poland
PASB# 407, GSB# 552, and AHSB #44. Imported to England in 1913. Bought by Lady Wentworth in 1920.

----Heijer (Desert Bred x Desert Bred)
--Ibrahim
----Lafitle (Desert Bred x Desert Bred)
Skowronek 1908 grey
--------Kortez (Cercle x Gonta [1855])
----Rymnik
--------Hama (Kohejlan-Abu-Argub x Caramba)
--Jaskolka 1891
--------Derwisz (Desert Bred x D.B)
----Epopeja
--------Lira (Obejan-Maciuk x Kreolka)

FFC: 1920. LFC: 1929 He sired a total of 52 foals: 4 were bays, 2 were chestnuts, and 46 were greys.

Links for further Skowronek info:
http://www.crabbet.com/articlepics/skowronek.html *Excellent
http://reinback.com/Index3.htm

More Icelandic Color
Icelandics come in these nine basic colors:

Nondilute:
bay (all shades: red, black, blood, etc)
black (all shades: including brown)
chestnut (all shades: red, copper, blonde, flaxen, liver, etc)
Dilute:
buckskin, smokey black, palomino
Double dilute:
perlino, silver smokey, cremello

The following modifiers are also possible: dun, roan, grey, 'sooty', 'pangare', champagne, silver dapple (on bay and black based horses only)

There are also two pinto patterns known in Icelandics, tobiano and splash white. Sabino and frame overo are not known. There are no appaloosa Icelandics.

There are also some colors that can 'fake' you out. Brown and black are often hard to tell apart. Silver dapple bay and chocolate palomino (flaxen liver chestnut?) are hard to tell apart so the rule of thumb there is look at the fetlocks of the horse. If they're red, it's a chestnut. If they're silver/white, it's a silver dapple bay. Three colors are rare in Icelandics: any champange, any roan, splash white. Most greys in Icelandics go pure white very early on. Fleabitten grey is rare but occasionally found.

Silver Dapple Bay
A silver dapple bay is simply a bay horse that carries the silver dapple gene. The silver dapple gene 'Z' is heterozygous dominant and it only manifests itself on horses that have the 'E' gene for black pigment.

It expresses itself with #1) silver, white and rarely, ruddy red mane and tail AND #2) black pigment diminished visibly. This is most noticeable on black horses because they are very striking, with white or flaxen manes and a color that ranges from nearly black (rarest expression) with red-to-white 'splots' (they don't look like dapples at all) to a chocolate-red-brown with small splotchy spots. Sometimes the horse is only ruddy colored and doesn't have any dapples.

It's harder to tell with a silver dapple bay because the dapples (if any appear at all) do not show up on red pigmented hair. Most silver dapple bays wind up incorrectly labeled a liver chestnut with flaxen mane. You can find a few silver dapple bays that DO have more black legs than not; if they had been born black, I suspect they'd have been the silver dapples that are more or less black with large blotchy 'dapples'.

Fascinating fact: In Icelandics, Silver Dapple blacks and bays are born with wide, distinct black and white stripes on their hooves that slowly fade as the horse matures. You can tell if your funny colored 'chestnut' baby is really a silver dapple this way, provided you see it at birth.

Silver Dapple Breeds
Welsh Ponies do but it is extremely rare.

For silver dapple Missouri Fox Trotters:
http://www.foxtrotterstation.net/SilverDappleFoxtrotters.htm

Highland Ponies are said to come in "chestnut" but they are silver dapple.

Splash White Breeds
~Paints: of course!
~Quarter Horses: Chex lines, Gambling Man - a pure QH who was born a LOUD Splash White and registered as a Paint)
~Appaloosas: the Bright Eyes line who got it from the grand old buckskin pintaloosa mare Plaudette, dam of Maddon's Bright Eyes (QH) and Bright Eyes Brother (App), Mighty Bright especially threw splash whites.
~Shetland Ponies
~Minature Horses
~Icelandics
~Abaco Barbs: a herd of Spanish Barb blooded horses in the Caribbean, almost extinct now. Check out: http://www.ecis.com/~whl/clo/abaco.html & http://www.arkwild.org/index.html
~Many Spanish blooded Mustangs
~Finnhorses: rare
~ Gotland Ponies: rare
~Welsh Ponies: The Hot Spot was a splash. There is also a splash white Welsh foal pictured in the first Sponenberg book, and Carol Knowles-Pfiefer (former registry inspector for the UK society and author on horse color) has confirmed their existence. If you breed certain lines of the Mountain Ponies, you can get them.

However, the white rules in the current US society rule book state: "Any Welsh pony or cob with large white area having clearly defined edges on the body, except for belly spots, will not be registered. For purposes of this rule, the body is defined as the area behind a line drawn from the withers to the point of the shoulder and above the elbow and stifle."

~American Saddlebreds: Artistic Perfection was a classically marked splash. Masquerade Party is also a splash. See him at: http://coloredhorses.org/usabinos.html

Legends V
Legends V is now available and can be ordered from Western Horseman or your local bookstore:
http://www.westernhorseman.com
Horses profiled include: Little Joe, Joe Moore, Monita, Bill Cody, Joe Cody, Topsail Cody, Pretty Buck, Pat Star Jr, Skipa Star, Hank H, Chubby, Bartender, Leo San, Custus Rastus (TB), Jaguar, Jackie Bee, Chicado V, Mr Bar None. 248pp.

AQHA Rulebook
The AQHA Rule book is now online. Not the most user friendly thing (you have to scroll through the Acrobat file to find the info you want) but it is there complete with patterns. View it at: www.aqha.com

Swedish Warmblood Info Straight From The Horses Mouth

1. ASVH can approve a pinto stallion if his other qualities - conformation, gaits, jumping and health requirements - are up to the standards we ask from a stallion.
2. A new approved stallion is not allowed to have the same name as a previously approved.
3. Passepartout (the pinto) is NOT approved (licensed) by ASVH. He was presented in our performance test a couple of years ago, but he did not pass. Since he has been properly evaluated, he can be used for breeding, but his offspring are NOT eligible to be fully registered by the ASVH.
   
   Karl-Henrik Heimdahl
   ASVH stallion committee

So the grey pinto stallion Passepartout is not yet fully approved for SWB breeding. He is however licensed. The difference is that Swedish law says a stallion has to be evaluated for breeding (but not necessarily approved), blood-typed and licensed for you to be allowed to breed him to outside mares. So, Passepartout is evaluated and licensed but is not in the studbook. When (if) he is fully approved (through performance), his name would probably have to change. Him being a pinto should have no influence whether he gets approved or not since pinto is an allowed color in the SWB breed and though finding a pinto SWB with a recognized 4 generation pedigree is rare, a couple of pinto mares are already in the studbook.

Pinto Warmblood Refresher
Samber is the only tobiano stallion that has ever been Approved for breeding by the KWPN. There are other tobianos registered with the KWPN (or NA/WPN) like Art Deco, but they all trace to Samber.

For non-Samber tobiano warmblood's, there is Rainbow, an Oldenburger. He gets his color from Tina, Samber's dam.

The Dutch tobiano stallion, Ico, traces his color to his maternal great grand-dam, who was of unknown breeding. Ico stood in Holland for a number of years, then he was imported to Germany (specifically, Hessen). He does have foals registered as Hessen, Rheinland Pfalz-Saar, and ZfDP, but it's not known if any are approved for breeding.

There are also 2 lines of tobiano Weilkopolski's (Polish Warmbloods), some of which have been proven to be purebred Trakehners. There are a handful of tobiano Trakehner mares registered in the Main Stud Book of the German Trakehner Verband and one Approved tobiano stallion (all trace to Eva, Cornelia, or both).

There are 4 approved pinto Swedish warmblood mares and no approved stallions -yet. Links to try:
http://www.delerstuteri.com/english.htm
http://www.geocities.com/EGequistrian/

There is also:
Samba Pa-ti is a 1994 skewbald Westfalen(approved). Traces to Samber.
Simsalabim-approved Danish Pinto Society and Swedish Pinto Society Sobello-fully papered SWB stallion-not approved
Sambesi-licensed,not approved www.delerstuteri.com

Selle Francais Naming
Omit Letters W,X,Y,Z
No more than one word, 20 character limit.
88-a
89-b
90-c
91-d
92-e
93-f
94-g 95-h
96-i
97-j
98-k
99-l
2000-m
2001-n

Friesian Registration Numbers
Friesian registration numbers are easy: the first four numbers are the birth year, the second four are the registration number (for the year) and the last digit indicates the sex.

For example, Nanning 374 has the registration #199617561. He was born in 1996, registration number is 1756, and 1 indicates male. (0 for female).

The older stallions have their stallion number incorporated into the unique 4-digit portion of their registration number. Nanning is the 374th approved stallion since De Paauw (born in 1872) was assigned the number 1.

Chestnut Friesians and Freark
Freark 218 was born in 1960 and approved in 1963. He is considered to be "the source" of the red gene in modern Friesians, as all approved stallions known to carry the red gene trace back to him. This is a bit unfair to Freark as there are mare lines that carry the gene, possibly from extinct sire lines, but the gene is pretty much "blamed" on Freark. Freark was sired by Ritske 202P and out of ster mare Typies by Meint 196. Freark's only approved son was Diedert 288, a lovely stallion sired in Freark's last season. Diedert himself had no approved sons.

Other stallions known to carry the red gene are:
Ysbrand 238 (not a descendant of Freark, they have the same mother)
Laes 278 (sire of Obizuth)
Diedert 288
Jillis 301
Wicher 334
Atse 342 (no longer approved for breeding)
Abe 346

The FPS (Dutch Studbook) will no longer approve stallions who carry the red gene.

The Friesian Associations
The Friesian Horse Association of North America (FHANA) is not a registry. They are the official North American affiliates of the Dutch studbook (FPS). They follow the FPS rules EXACTLY and you absolutely may NOT cross-breed ANY FPS-registered Friesian. If you are a member of FHANA and wish to register your Friesians, they will be registered with FPS.

The Friesian Horse Society (FHS) is the US affiliate of the Friesenpferde-Zuchtverband e.V, (FPZV, Friesian Breeders' Association - Germany), and only FPZV approved stallions are allowed to cross-breed. They do not allow foal book registered stallions or mares to cross breed.

The Friesian is still on the rebound. There were only three purebred stallions alive in 1917 and for a time afterwards, they were bred more as draft horses than carriage horses, so the quality went downhill. It was only in the 1970s did the registry become more strict.

FHANA Rules
From the FHANA rules and regulations:
"Friesian mares should only be bred to FPS Studbook Stallions with Approved Breeding Privileges. No registration papers will be issued to foals born in North America after 1994 whose sires are not FPS Studbook Stallions with breeding privileges. Cross breeding to stallions of other breeds is strongly discouraged and no registration papers will be issued to the offspring of such breedings. The members who allow such cross breeding will be subject to disciplinary action which could include withdrawing papers from all their horses and expulsion from the FHANA."

"FPS Studbook Stallions with Approved Breeding Privileges should only be bred to Friesian mares registered with the FPS. Cross breeding of Studbook Stallions to mares of other breeds is not allowed and will result in the approved breeding privileges being immediately withdrawn. Members who allow cross breeding of any Friesian stallion will be subject to the disciplinary action mentioned under Mares above."

Most owners who cross breed their Friesians are associated with the German registry, which DOES allow cross breeding.

"The breeding objective of the FPS is to breed beautiful horses with typical Friesian characteristics, which are competitive as driving horses and under saddle in dressage, and are also suitable for recreational use. This should be accomplished by selection within the breed, while further reducing inbreeding."

There are only 22 Approved Dutch stallions in the US today.

The approval and inspections are very timely, expensive and long and if even one criteria is not met, such as your stallion being 1/2 inch too short, he is not approved. The approval program is the strictest of all equine evaluations. Once you have been given status, every year the horse must be shown to be fit to continue his breed program., through his yearly inspections and those of his get.

It can take years for a foal or mare, to get any status and the criteria is very strict for them. The judges come here from Holland, with the inspections and vet exams being done under watchful eyes.

The German registry (FPZV) tests the horses on the ground, under saddle, driving and jumping a course of fences not less than 3 feet. The German Registry believes in not only the appearance of the horse but movement and "usability" as well. It is not for the "2nd class" horses that don't pass the Dutch registry!

Friesians In The US
Yk failed his offspring examination in 1999 and was then transferred to the FPZV.

Aswyn van de Plumm, who was never a fully-approved Dutch stallion but had special breeding privileges when there were hardly any Friesians in North America. Aswyn's special allowance was revoked when the numbers of Friesian mares and approved stallions in NA were considered sufficient to allow variety in breeding. Some of the horses in the German registry were presented for approval with the Dutch but did not pass the testing.

Friesian History
Friesians today are more like the original Friesian than the drafty Friesians of the 1930s and 40s. The Friesian of, for example, the 1820-1880s, was a racing trotter unequalled and in 1823, the King's Golden Whip Day was established (an annual race day held in Leeuwarden with a Golden Whip as the prize). The name "Hardravver" comes from a family line of racing Friesian of the day. Using the term "old style" Friesian would mean "heavier" type to a Friesian breeder, even though it is not really the original type.

The "Age 168" line of Friesians is considered the old-style line, although not all the horses of this line look heavy (it of course depends on what the other side of the family was!) The Age line today is only represented (in direct male descent) by seven stallions of two branches:

Age sire of:
Gerke
Bjinse
Peke
Doeke (19yo and may still be breeding)
Nikolaas (no longer used in breeding)

Doeke also sired Karst, who was approved in 1998 but died the same year.

Peke also sired Tsjomme, no longer used in breeding but sire of Jelte (approved in 1998). This makes two active sires for this branch.

The larger branch is as follows:
Age
Gerke
Bjinse
Lammert (26 this year [2000] and still breeding)
Frans (the Friesian photographed by Vavra)
Melle
Fabe
Sape (approved in 2000)

Lammert also sired Jelle, who was approved in 1998 but died last fall. So from Lammert, we have five stallions.

It is interesting to note that although the Age line is perhaps the "least popular" among breeders due to the "old" or heavy style of some of the horses, Melle was Champion Stallion of the Netherlands in 1996, and Reserve Champion 1992-1995. His son Fabe was Reserve Champion Stallion in 2000 (it was his second or even third year as Reserve). Fabe's son Sape was Champion Stallion for 2001 (the youngest Champion ever).

No Friesian judge may own an approved Friesian stallion. The education and testing for Friesian judges is very rigorous, requiring literally years of school and apprenticeship and education against type "preference" or "bias."

Friesian Crosses
Nico is on the Sport Horses of Color site in the stallions section: www.shoc.org.
He is a black tobiano Friesian/Dutch Warmblood cross.

Proud Meadows has some of the best German registered Friesian stallions in the US (i.e. can be bred to non-Friesian mares): http://www.proudmeadows.com

Gelderlanders
Gelderlanders are named using the same year based system as Dutch Warmbloods.

Plaudette's Dynasty
Plaudette wasn't just splash, she was what we would call today a Pintaloosa! She came from the Coke Roberds breeding program that produced roan Appaloosa's that were frequently mistakenly registered as QH's. She also traced to Old Fred who had definate sabino markings.

Maddon's Bright Eyes is a half-sister to Bright Eyes Brother, both out of Plaudette and sired by QH's. Yet Bright Eyes Brother was a buckskin with blanket Appy! He too had the major chrome.

Maddon's Bright Eyes had four foals: Bright Bar (1954 colt by Three Bars)
Bright Red (1956 colt by Leo, a near crop-out)
Me Bright (1957 filly by Leo, spitting image of Mom)
Lady Bright Eyes (1958 filly by Leo)

Bright Eyes was put down when this last foal was 3 months old. This last foal was also put down when she was 18 months. She was a great race horse until she was injured and as soon as she was better, she was bred. For more information, check out the Legends 3 chapter on Maddon's Bright Eyes.

To Greener Pastures
Paint stallion Versary Boy died May 8. He was an APHA Champion, Superior All-Around and Performance Versatility, 1982 Nat'l Champion in Heeling, Reserve Nat'l Champion in Reining. He sired 213 foals, 64 with show records. They earned 363 halter points and 1,729 performance points. They hold 65 ROM awards, 7 Superiors and 6 World or Nat'l Show Championships.

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