Hey there! I have a quick question. I am browsing my horse magazine and there are a TON of cross bred horses for sale through a breeder. They are Gypsy x paint, gypsy x AQHA, Gypsy x Mustang, Friesian x Canadian Warmblood, Friesian x APHA, Friesians x Arabian, etc. list goes on and on. Is their a large market for those crosses and what are they trying to do with each cross or is it something market specific that I am missing? There must be 20 of them total and I had not heard of these particular crosses. I am not a breeder, just curious. Thank you!
I personally think it’s fad breeding. Gypsies happen to be the fad right now. Before that it was Friesians…20 years ago it was Andalusians and they were crossed with everything on the planet. Every 5-10 years, a rare breed makes an appearance in North America and everybody hops on the band wagon. 
Thank you. Seemed a bit like they are reaching for the next big thing…
[QUOTE=TullyMars;7654210]
I am browsing my horse magazine and there are a TON of cross bred horses for sale through a breeder. They are Gypsy x paint, gypsy x AQHA, Gypsy x Mustang, Friesian x Canadian Warmblood, Friesian x APHA, Friesians x Arabian, etc. list goes on and on. [/QUOTE]
This sounds like the typical backyard breeder (see the “weirdest crosses” thread) but there are some people responsibly crossing Friesians too and creating seriously nice horses. This is the registry http://www.friesiansporthorseassociation.com/ I’ve got friends with Friesian Sporthorses and breeders who are as knowledgeable and serious as any Warmblood breeder.
I personally have done several Friesian crosses, although my focus has been Friesian to Warmblood. The Friesian tends to throw a fabulous temperament and add back bone and foot, which so many Warmbloods seem to get away from now. I think it is the temperament that people are looking for - plus the Friesian often adds a baroque look - round neck, more flamboyant movement, etc.
Many of those crosses you mention are being bred for family horses - nice temperaments, good looking, fun horses. With great manes and tails (there are a lot of people who like hair). I can almost guess who the breeder is, there are only a few breeders who are turning out that kind of volume with that wide range of crosses.
Friesian Heritage Horse is a registry that runs inspections and has some “books” for some of the specialized crosses, as well as a sport horse book for the horses that are bred for sport (dressage, combined driving, eventing etc). There are many smaller registries too, some of them started by a single breeder to identify their favorite crosses.
There is a market for these horses - especially in the Mid-West where many horse owners want a nice, all around, family horse.
I think they are going for pretty hair. To each their own.
I’ve known a few very well bred Friesians…they were pretty tough rides (to get to go correctly) but had very pretty hair! I would not have pegged them as a beginner family horse type but the ones I knew were well bred sport horses for dressage and quite nice. Just not easy to ride well.
I just can’t imagine actually wanting to add more hair! :lol:
Thank you everyone for your responses! I was very curious of the crosses. I suppose the 1/2 Friesians can get part bred papers
But not sure if the gypsy have 1/2 bred papers. Perhaps they need more of the Friesians to fill the Shows. I had an acquaintance who went to a show with a Friesian x Andalusian and came back with 6 world titles and 1 reserve world title. I thought perhaps I am missing something here and wanted to explore the 1/2 bred a bit more. Turns out there were only 2 horses there that were part bred. Never the less well done! Always trying to learn something new!
I have a Friesian/Arab cross. No shame in telling you I think she’s beautiful. It was her temperament I bought her for though. She is a sweetheart all around fun horse. I’ve no grand ambitions, so these horses are probably bred for the silly girls like me.
She is in great health, our farrier photographed her feet as an example of how feet should look, and indeed, I do love playing with her mane. 
[QUOTE=TullyMars;7654707]
I had an acquaintance who went to a show with a Friesian x Andalusian and came back with 6 world titles and 1 reserve world title. I thought perhaps I am missing something here and wanted to explore the 1/2 bred a bit more. Turns out there were only 2 horses there that were part bred. Never the less well done! Always trying to learn something new![/QUOTE]
I know nothing about the competition at the Friesian shows, but I have been to the big regional and national Andalusian and Lusitano shows. It’s not too hard to be National Champion when there are only 2 or 3 in the class. This is especially true for the partbreds, although it is the case for some of the purebred classes as well. I’ve stopped being impressed by stallions and sale horses of these breeds that are promoted with “National Championship” titles.
I have a Friesian cross. She was NOT bred intelligently to try to get a good cross. Her previous owner had a 1/2 Friesian/Quarter Horse by the same stallion, loved it, and when it died decided she wanted a half sibling. So she bred a “Mexican Andalusian” - unpapered, so I suspect actually a Spanish mustang to the same stallion. Failing to understand that the dam is 1/2 the breeding of a horse…
Anyway, of course she didn’t like the horse. But she used her for trail riding, barefoot, in the mountains. She’s super sound, has the super easy Friesian trot to sit, but is smaller. So she basically turned out to be the exact type of horse we wanted for my mom as a w/t trail horse. I never, EVER, would have bred that specific cross. But the resulting horse is very low energy, calm, super sound, and was the perfect Mom horse until she quit riding. Now she’s my visitor and kid horse and I give relative kids lessons on her. The temperament definitely turned out as folks hope for with Friesian crosses, and the naturally higher headset was reassuring for my mom who felt like she would fall off the front of quarter-types when they’d put their heads down on the trail.
Thank you everyone for your perspective!
[QUOTE=netg;7655446]
She’s super sound, has the super easy Friesian trot to sit…[/QUOTE]
No offense, but…HUH? Friesian trots are NOT easy to sit! They are one of the most difficult trots to sit.
I’d like to pose the question to this breeder of “all things Friesian and/or Gypsy cross”, what exactly are your breeding goals? Hair? Money? Seriously, in this economic environment, breeding for the low-end “pet and/or trail rider” isn’t likely to be a successful venture.
SIGH
[QUOTE=Donatella;7654320]
there are some people responsibly crossing Friesians too and creating seriously nice horses. This is the registry http://www.friesiansporthorseassociation.com/ I’ve got friends with Friesian Sporthorses and breeders who are as knowledgeable and serious as any Warmblood breeder.[/QUOTE]
Those are NOT your typical Friesian crosses, but thanks for sharing the link!
[QUOTE=TullyMars;7654707]
I had an acquaintance who went to a show with a Friesian x Andalusian and came back with 6 world titles and 1 reserve world title. I thought perhaps I am missing something here and wanted to explore the 1/2 bred a bit more. Turns out there were only 2 horses there that were part bred. [/QUOTE]
It was probably IFSHA. Nobody takes their “Championship” titles seriously.
Jd, that was my thought that this was a really odd breeding plan. Lots of odd crosses in my opinion. The randomness of the breeds kind of tells me that they are breeding to the registries that allow 1/2 bred papers perhaps? So buyers are buying “papered” horses? Lots of pictures of horses that do not appear to be really athletic types. Perhaps I am all wrong. I am sure there may be some good individuals, but I bet it is similar to the situation in which the Friesian breeder in San Diego bought every mare she could find off Craigslist and bred her Friesian stallion to it for 1/2 bred paperable horses. That one did not end so well. But that came to mind. Like I said, perhaps I am just missing the picture.
Funny, because that’s not what… anyone I know in real life thinks about Friesian trots. On the other hand, plenty of people I “know” online think it’s hard. Maybe we get the freakish Friesians with easy trots in AZ, but it wouldn’t explain why so many AAs get them because their gaits are rideable.
I wonder if that’s where our mare came from. :lol: She was from a SD-area breeder. And her breeding definitely didn’t seem to make sense, just happened to result in a horse who was the right horse for my mom.
The one I rode was breed for dressage by Iron Spring Farm. His gaits were not hard to sit on but he was very difficult to get through and working over his back correctly. So in the sense he was hard. His AA owner had trouble getting him to canter…I didn’t when I rode him but I had to work pretty hard to get him really connected and working correctly over his back (he was very locked and stiff–but not hard to sit on) (he was in training with a top GP dressage trainer). Once you got him through, he improved but he didn’t give it easily. He was well trained…just smarter than his owner and would test any new rider. Didn’t do anyting BAD…just acted like he didn’t know anything until he realized you were serious and knew better. He was actually quite a nice mover…and had lots of pretty hair. I couldn’t stand to take care of that much hair!!!
There is no such breed as a “Gypsy”. They are mutts. Why would any serious breeder cross a mutt with anything else ? Other than of course to get another mutt. Sorry forgot the butterflies and hair !
(The existence of a registry does not confer breed status).
There is a barn by me that breeds Friesian x Arab crosses that are quite nice. They win quite a bit at Arabian shows, including their sporthorse nationals or whatever they’re called.
I have never seen a Gypsy or a Gypsy crossed with anything that I would want.
I have ridden several full Friesians, and they ran a gamut as far as rideability. A couple were really nice to ride; I wouldn’t say you could ever sit a trot on them, but posting was not bad at all. A couple of others were like jackhammers, and a couple more were in between. None of them had good canters.
