Whether it’s starting or re-educating a Friesian, I do see the samme idiosyncrasies. So whether it be on the ground or under saddle if you don’t have softness and a willingness to yield to pressure there is no way you can out muscle 600 plus kgs of horse. Many of the problems I encounter with Fiesian are similar. Common ones that come to mind are pushiness on the ground, caused by the humans always yielding to the horse and not having back up in the horse. This becomes evident when the horse receives a fright and plows over or through the handler. Another is lack of softness and understanding to follow the feel presented by the human. As the Fiesian tendency is to push into pressure, you soon realise a troubled horse is almost uncontrollable, you may feel like your reins are tied to a rock. I would say that the Friesian is a little more dull compared to say a thoroughbred or an Arab. The dull horse is harder to get going but also harder to stop if they want to take off. So its critical that when working with this type of horse I make sure they are soft and supple. This may mean that you have to apply more pressure to get a response from your horse, I always offer a light feel to the horse first before slowly firming up.