"I will not change my horse with any that treads but on four pasterns...When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk. He trots the air, the earth sings when he touches it, the basest horn of his hoofs is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.. When bestride him I soar, I am a hawk..."
(William Shakespeare).
HORSE CARE: We don't take shortcuts in the quality of care that we give to our horses and we try to provide them with a lifestyle where they can engage in natural behaviors. All of our horses are current on the recommended injections for our area, they are wormed on a rotation schedule and we use barefoot farrier methods. While we use stables for foaling, extreme weather, and for individual feeding all of our horses are free to socialize and have room to run and play the vast majority of the time. We are blessed to have a very gentle and sane stallion who we can keep in a field with a gelding.
Ramses is a working stallion, he is ridden and driven and most of the broodmares are also trained to ride.
We don't isolate our foals at weaning but leave them as a group and include at least one young adult mare to act as their herd leader. The foals are trained from a young age using natural horsemanship techniques. Our goal is that each foal will leave the ranch with a foundation of training and understanding that will go with them wherever they find themselves in the years to come.
VALUE FOR MONEY: We offer our horses for sale to "good homes only" at very reasonable and honest prices. We work to keep our prices reasonable because of our dedication to breeding these amazing horses, because we are able to use our own resources, and for the wonderful friendships that we have developed with horse lovers all over North America through this enterprise. We take care of the horses ourselves, take our own pictures and videos, we also created and maintain this website.
OUR BACKGROUND: Friesians in Color is located in the Tri-Cities area of eastern Washington five minutes off the I82 around three hours drive from Seattle or Portland. In addition to breeding and foaling up to ten of our own mares each year we also stand our beloved stallion, Ramses, to a small number of outside mares. Karen Fish and Michael Fish, a father and daughter team, have been breeding these amazing horses for around a decade.
THE GEORGIAN GRANDES we breed are 25% or 50% American Saddlebred with the remainder being Friesian. At Friesians In Color, we treasure the Saddlebred part of our horses as they provide their offspring with so much more than color. We are originally from England and the American Saddlebred may well be "America's best kept secret." In truth their fantasy-style appearance leaps out at you, but a little known secret is that the ultimate show horse has a lot more than looks in his favor. They are intelligent, have plenty of commonsense, love to interact with people and are easy to train; they have been used for years in the show world (Flicka, Mr Ed, Fury). They are also incredibly athletic and supple with inbuilt stamina, and have been used to represent the USA in dressage, show jumping, eventing, driving and endurance (an ASB gelding was the world endurance champion for three years running).
While the Georgian Grnade breed is still in it's infancy they have been gaining popularity; they have been winning at dressage, eventing and show jumping, and they also make very dependable trail horses. Their appearance and trainability may lead them to become T.V. stars like some of their saddlebred and Friesian ancestors. An episode of the popular TV series "Lost" featured a three year old Georgian Grande mare (Kate's horse).
A young Friesian mare, Isis, played herd leader for our 2008 weaned foals
Ramses as a two year old with best buddy Lancelot, we hope to keep these two together for life.
THE GEORGIAN GRANDE
We also breed Georgian Grandes a combination of the friesian and the "Peacock" of the horse world, the stunningly beautiful, athletic and elegant American Saddlebred.
THE FRIESIAN
We breed the legendary Friesian, the horse with the majestic appearance, high stepping powerful gaits, sleek black coat and personable nature.
The broodmare in this picture "Starlight's Echo" was the first Georgian Grande born on our ranch. She is pictured with her 2008 foal.
"All horses deserve, at least once in their lives, to be loved by a little girl" (Author Unknown).
Friesians are known for their gentle, dependable dispositions. This is one of our Friesian mares "Andra" pictured with Jemma.
FRIESIANS are a legend. One of the oldest breeds they are known to have been around since the middle ages. Elegant, willing, energetic but gentle and easily trainable their high stepping paces and proud appearance has caused them to regain popularity recently as dressage, carriage, and pleasure horses. Their fantasy appearance has also led them to became stars in films such as Ladyhawke, Eragon, The Mask of Zorro, Alexander, The Chronicles of Narnia, and 300 have also featured Friesian horses.
