My title today is as good an explanation as any for the desire of many Americans to breed Friesians to freakin' anything. Appaloosas, Clydesdales, sheep...it's all better with a little black hairy war horse added!
The creature on the left, which I am ashamed to say was apparently bred and is offered for sale in my own home town, is Friesian and Clydesdale. Check out those ears. They are really something special. They look like a stripper's boobs with the tassels hanging off of them.
Say, backyard Friesian-cross breeder? Usually when horses are offered for sale, we make an attempt to, like, catch them and clip them and stand them up so people can see what they look like and stuff. And you want $3500 for this animal? For that, I can go pick up five OTTB's that actually are sporthorse prospects.
You just know you're in for some entertainment when you read that a horse's name is Prince Valiant of Cashmere. This is a Friesian/Saddlebred cross. Why you ask? Well hell, why not? We seem to have managed to breed out any elegance normally associated with the ASB, while maintaining the high set neck and facial shape. However, the ass end doesn't look like either a Friesian or a Saddlebred (except for the tail ) so I can only assume there was a helping of Low Quality Ranch Horse in there as well. But hey, who cares? He's spotted! And flashy! And we don't know WTF we are doing anyway. Hell, you're lucky we didn't breed him to a camel - we've got those too. Prince Valiant can be yours for the low, low price of only $9000. Don't all run for your checkbooks at once!
Just to show that I don't think all Friesian crosses are a bad thing, here is a Friesian-Lusitano cross. Hooray! Two breeds that make sense together and whose conformational qualities complement each other.
This is a good looking horse who is put together to be pretty athletic, and looks like he might actually be able to perform a sport (hence the term SPORT horse). The irony is, he's half the price of the spotted horror above.
