New research suggests that the 10-week training program young Friesian stallions undertake in order to be approved for their studbook needs to be altered.
Following research that studied and monitored 16 stallions during the training program it is now believe by researchers that the horses are being overtrained and their level of fitness decreases over the 70-day test.
The study – Longitudinal Training and Workload Assessment in Young Friesian Stallions in Relation to Fitness: Part 1 by Esther Siegers, Emma van Wijk, Jan van den Broek, Marianne Sloet van Oldruitenborgh-Oosterbaan and Carolien Munsters can be read here.
The effect of the Friesian stallion training program, consisting of dressage and driving training, on fitness progress was evaluated in this study. Training response of the horses to this approval program was evaluated by the researchers.