FRIESIAN FOCUS
Savvy business plan brings the best of
the breed to the United States

by Kim F. Miller


 

A knee-jerk “No!” was veteran trainer Lance Bennett’s first response to client Joan Fernandez’s initial interest in getting a Friesian.
At the time, Lance had nearly 20 years of experience and success with Saddlebreds, Morgans and Hackney ponies. When Joan brought up Friesians for the third time, Lance again said “No!” and this time he elaborated: “We’re not buying a draft horse!”
With his characteristic good humor, Lance relays this exchange while standing in his breezy barn aisle as eight gorgeous Friesians look his way. They include International Friesian Horse Show Assn. national champions Wodan and Otto, the well-known stars in what is now a full show and sales stable called Friesian Focus. The owner, of course, is Joan Fernandez and the trainer is Lance.


Like many Friesian devotees, Joan fell hard and fast in love with this breed. It was a little more than three years ago that Lance capitulated to his client’s persistence about getting a Friesian. Disappointed by the horses available then in the United States, Joan and Lance headed to Holland, where Friesians were originally bred to pull carriages and do light farm work.
At first, they were just looking for one or two horses for Joan, an amateur rider. But Lance soon swooned over these horses, too. Joan and Lance’s appreciation for the Friesian’s wonderful temperament and suitability for both competitive and recreational equestrian endeavors led them to become partners in importing, developing and selling top-quality Friesians in the States. Today Friesian Focus typically has 20 horses for sale at any given time. Joan, Lance and his partner Scott Hickey travel to the Friesian homeland twice a year, usually returning with between four and six horses.
Lance’s considerable experience as a horseman gives Friesian Focus an advantage in the shopping phase. Although there are several show-oriented barns in Holland, buying a Friesian there most often involves visiting individual farm after individual farm. Not necessarily horse farms. “We found Wodan at a cow barn,” Lance recalls. “I first saw him from behind. He was tied to the wall, just like the cows were! I noticed that his ears were grazing the barn’s roof.”

Lance immediately identified the “X factor” in Wodan. He turned out to be the son of Thomas, a sire who has since become one of Friesian Focus’s favorites because he passes on a great mix of show ring pizzazz, down-to-earth manners and a keen intellect.
Finding horses is only part of the art at Friesian Focus. As an amateur rider, Joan sensed there was a niche for good horses who were well started and proven safe and reliable. Horses are bought and imported at various levels of training and show experience, but they are only presented to prospective buyers when they’ve had plenty of training and finishing work.

Best For The Breed
The Friesian’s popularity in the United States has exploded. In 1986, there were an estimated 350 Friesians here and today there are roughly 3,500. An unfortunate side effect of this boom has been an increasing number of enthusiasts buying Friesians sight-unseen through the Internet. Viewing this as a likely path to unhappy and potentially harmful horse/human match-ups, Joan insists on having a physical inventory of horses at Friesian Focus, which is located at Lance’s beautiful Rancho Vista training facility in San Diego County’s Vista. “Joan is all about getting good horses to good people,” Lance explains.
Joan and Lance believe that educating buyers is good for the breed and for their business. That’s why prospective owners visiting Friesian Focus will spend at least half a day learning about these majestic horses.


A relatively recent convert himself, Lance is an enthusiastic teacher. He grew up on the East Coast as primarily a hunter/jumper rider. One ride on a Saddlebred, however, turned him onto a new world of Saddleseat riding and carriage driving with Saddlebreds, Morgans and Hackney ponies. At shows for these breeds, Lance and his students excelled in Country Pleasure, Saddle Pleasure, Park Saddle and other classes in which high knee action, fast gaits, flowing manes and tails and gorgeous turn-out for horse, rider and equipment create a show atmosphere that is thrilling for participants and spectators alike.
Shortly after Lance gave in to Joan’s wish for a Friesian, he saw the breed’s potential in this arena. He realized their high neck carriage, high knee action and flashy looks and show ring demeanor could make them real contenders on that circuit.
Although some old-school Saddlebred trainers are resistant to Friesians crashing their party, Lance says many amateurs are jumping on the bandwagon. Owners get a horse that can both carry them to show victories and be a safe and enjoyable partner under saddle and around the barn. Lance and Wodan’s high-stepping handsome picture on the cover of a recent issue of The Saddle Horse Report is a sign of the times, Lance believes.
As a sales enterprise, Friesian Focus’ main objective is matching owners with horses they can ride and enjoy. While calm, even temperaments are consistent throughout the breed, some horses are destined for show-oriented professionals or veteran amateurs and some are suited for owners who want a great partner for fun, relaxing riding everywhere except the show ring. Friesian Focus imports both kinds of horses, but Lance says current demand leans toward horses for mostly recreational purposes.
Drop-dead good looks are a common denominator in any horse Friesian Focus sells. “We sell the horses that stand out in their barn,” Lance says. “The horses that make people say ‘Wow!’ when they come out of the stall.”

Show Time!
Lance and his team at Rancho Vista love to show and put an equal emphasis on winning and having a great time. They typically attend one show a month from April through December. The agenda includes competitions geared toward traditional Saddleseat and carriage driving breeds, and the growing number of Friesian shows sanctioned by the young International Friesian Horse Show Association.
A good measure of Lance’s enthusiasm for and faith in Friesians is the fact that he volunteered to be vice chairman for IFHSA’s World and Grand National Championship Horse Show, which will be held Oct. 4-7 in St. Louis Lake, MO. (See story, page 22.) Now preparing for its fourth year, the competition had been held at different locations and on different dates for its first three years. With a resume that also includes impressive show management credentials, Lance led the way in securing a set location and regular date for the Grand Nationals from here forward. In order to continue the Grand National’s growth, “People need to know the venue, they need to know the hotels, the restaurants,” says Lance.
The National Equestrian Center in Lake St. Louis was chosen for its central location and weatherproof indoor arena. Lance admits it was nice having the Grand Nationals in Las Vegas last year, but it was hard for Friesian owners and trainers elsewhere. He hopes that a permanent and central location for the breed’s “big show” will help prevent East Coast-West Coast polemics that can hamstring national efforts to promote a breed or discipline.

Grand Nationals
Friesian Focus first ventured to the Grand Nationals in 2005, when the competition was staged in Virginia. They took three horses and came home with two national championships. Last year, they went to Las Vegas with nine horses and came home with seven national titles. This year Lance expects to make the 23 hour drive to Missouri with six to eight horses and hopes are high they’ll be coming home with even more tri-colors than in years past.
Whatever the ribbon count, no doubt the Friesian Focus and Rancho Vista crew will have fun. One of the many hats Scott Hickey wears is that of “set designer” for the stable’s tack-room turn-out at horse shows. Chandeliers, landscaping and fountains have all been part of Scott’s designs for stable-side lounge areas for clients and friends. The same attention to beauty, elegance and detail that Lance and his clients lavish on their horses and show attire and equipment, Scott applies to Rancho Vista’s homes away from home. Typically competing in a single division, clients have time to enjoy these amenities that add so much to the social side of horse showing. And that’s the point, say Lance and Scott, whose attitude harkens back to the almost purely social origins of equestrian competition.
Like the world of Saddlebreds, Morgans and Hackneys, the Friesian show circuit offers a wide variety of classes that allow enthusiasts of all levels to participate. Lance likens a Park Saddle class to a Grand Prix division in the hunter/jumper world, the domain of professionals and elite amateurs. A Concours d’Elegance class has room for more. Here the carriage driver needs to be very experienced, but a coachman and two passengers can have little horse experience and still be part of a winning team. In this beautiful-to-watch event, the horses, the carriage and all of its occupants are judged purely on how elegant of a picture they present. With the flamboyantly brilliant Friesian pair of Daen and Siger, Lance as driver and Joan as coachman won this hotly contested class at the recent Del Mar Charity Fair. In the costume classes, creativity trumps daring-do in the winners circle.
“Not everybody wants to jump,” observes Lance. He bases that assertion on the 100 students who lesson monthly with Cathryn Hager at the Rancho Vista Riding School and on the students who are attracted to Friesian Focus’s versatile and kind horses.
Since the idea of importing and developing quality Friesians has been so successful, Joan and Lance are moving carefully into breeding Friesians. It started somewhat by accident with the purchase of a mare, Aukje, who was in foal to a sire named Mintse at the time. Sensing that they had something special, but not very knowledgeable about the extremely strict Friesian approval process, they entered the filly, Snoepje, in the FPS keuring in Pomona last September. The yearling earned the very rare distinction of First Premium Mare. That designation was a thrill to all involved and a harbinger of good things to come from Friesian Focus’ breeding endeavors.
The keuring success was also verification that Lance and Joan’s preferences in Friesians were in synch with those held by the breed’s experts. From day-one with Friesian Focus, it has been Joan’s wish to promote the breed at its very best in the United States. Just three years into the business, she, Lance and, most of all, the horses they love, are doing exactly that.
For more information on Friesian Focus, please call 760-806-3648 or visit www.friesianfocus.com.