Who We Are

Mythic Friesians is a family run breeding operation located near Davidson, Saskatchewan, Canada. We moved in summer of 2008 from Abbotsford, British Columbia to our new home in Saskatchewan. We currently have about twice as much room as we did before (now on 10 acres) and are planning to expand much further in the immediate future. It's been a huge step getting to this point - but we're finally here!

Mythic Friesians is the embodiment of the dream of its owner, Allison Carpenter (that's me). Like everyone else who comes in contact with this wonderful breed, when I met a Friesian for the first time, I was completely won over. After that, it became my life’s goal to own one, and eventually start a breeding farm. In December of 2003, the dream came true, and the farm started to take on a life of its own. Within a month of purchasing my first Friesian, the farm had grown to four Friesian mares!

Now almost 5 years later, we've been through many ups and downs. Our fifth foaling season is past, during which our first embryo transfer foal was born - the most recent of the thirteen foals born to us so far. Only two of our initial 4 foundation mares are still here, and new bloodlines have been brought in. Our first generation of foals is mature and will be going to the keuring this year. We have lost a mare to colic - much too young at only 9 years old, but all too common in this breed.

With our most recent move, we are embarking on a new leg of the Mythic Friesians journey. Our foundation stock is aged, and soon the young mares coming up will be required to step up and fill their elders' shoes. In a few short years, we will have second generation Mythic Friesian offspring! And our new location gives us more opportunity to retain our young stock for future breeding and expansion.

The Mythic Friesians Philosophy
by Allison Carpenter

The way I view breeding is very simple. There are a lot of animals out there that don't have homes. Therefore, if I am going to actively bring more animals into this world, there has to be a reason. It has to be more than just 'Oooh! A pretty baby!'. That doesn't cut it. Any creature that I bring in to this world has to be an improvement, has to be working towards something.

After thinking about that for a long time, and examining closely the bloodlines of this breed I love so much, I decided that there was indeed a way I could help the Friesian horse.

Through no fault of anyone's, this breed has a very limited gene pool. As it almost died out twice in the past century or so, that is unavoidable. However, the breeding trends of today are compounding the problem. If you disagree, I challenge you to find a horse, bred within the past 10 years, that does not have Tetman 205 or one of his descendants on his or her papers. Hard, isn't it? But it's not nearly as difficult to find a horse without an Age or Ritske line descendant.

These bloodlines are vanishing. The stallions are getting old and dying off, and fewer and fewer are being bred to replace them. What is left of the Age line? One narrow, lonely branch, consisting of Fabe, Sape and Tije. Fabulous horses? Absolutely. But three stallions aren't enough to support a line, especailly when they are all so closely related. The Ritske line isn't looking much better off.

With that in mind, I declare here my purpose in breeding these great animals. I breed in order to support the old bloodlines. I do so in two ways. I increase the number of foals being produced by the few remaining Age line stallions, specifically from top quality mares. And I promote these stallions' offspring, in order to bring awareness to both their plight and their greatness.

That being said, not all mares cross into the Age line well. My mares that can not breed into the Age line will be bred to what Ritske line stallions are available. Failing that, I will breed to stallions with as small a quantity of Mark blood as is possible.

Is there anything wrong with Mark offspring? Absolutely not. Are there too many of them? In my opinion, yes. A lot of people put a lot of work into bringing this breed back from extinction. Now it's time to save the few bloodlines we have available to us.

Comments? Questions? I want to know your opinion.

Allison Carpenter
Mythic Friesians
Davidson, SK, Canada
ph: (306) 416-0073
info@mythicfriesians.com