Preserve the chestnut friesians!

Hello, I am working on behalf of Beddingfield Farms and Fire Friesians Foundation to crowdfund to preserve the chestnut friesian gene. There are twelve known red friesians left in the world.

In 1918, Black became the only coat color accepted into the KFPS Studbook. Before this rule was put in place, Friesians were Black, Bay, Chestnut, Grey or Roan; although the preference of black coats dates back to as early as 1849.

• The KFPS approved heterozygous black Friesian stallions were: Ijsbrand 238, Diedert 288, Laes 278, Jillis 301, Wicher 334, Atse 342 and Abe 346. All of these stallions were related to Freark 218. Freark 218’s chestnut factor was able to be traced back to 1920 due to chestnut foal(s) sired by President 123. All heterozygous black Friesians today are related to President 123.

• Between 1991 and 1998, 9 KFPS registered chestnut foals where born. With the rising concern, KFPS decided to change their breeding policy to limit more occurrences. In 1998, testing for the chestnut factor became apart of the Stallion approval process and no chestnut carriers were allowed to advance. This rule was later changed to: Stallions born before 2007 had to be negative. Chestnut factor Stallions born on or after 2007 are allowed to continue but carriership would be taken into consideration. In 2014, it was announced that newly approved stallions’ carriership would be publicized.

• As of 2020 there are 12 confirmed living Chestnut Friesians and more than 50 known heterozygous black Friesians world wide.

We are working tirelessly and endlessly to save these horses! With a donation from you we can continue on with procedures via embryo transfer, cloning, and other scientific methods. Beddingfield farms has endured ten years of thankless effort. Let's preserve this breed!