Canadian Friesian Horse Association request for special status under The Animal Pedigree Act

 Dear Canadian FHANA members,

I wish to bring to your attention that the Canadian Friesian Horse Association, whose mailing address is in Alberta and has no relationship with the Friesian Horse Association of North America, has initiated an application with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Ottawa for recognition as the official registry of Friesian horses in Canada. You may already be aware of this effort by the CFHA, but I suspect that for many Canadian FHANA members this is new information. Last year the Ontario Chapter of FHANA and possibly other Canadian chapters did respond with an official letter to Madame Virginie Rochet of The Ministry highlighting our views. Attachment 1 is a copy of that letter.

Recently the CFHA sent out a letter and a questionnaire to their list of identified Friesian horse owners. You may or may not have received such a mailing. The Ministry typically asks that organizations who are asking for special status poll all potentially affected parties; in other words, all Friesian horse owners in Canada. A copy of that letter and questionnaire is Attachment 2.

From among the four Canadian FHANA chapters we formed an ad hoc committee to consider what guidance we should offer to our Canadian members regarding this request from CFHA. You have possibly already seen the correspondence from CFHA and responded to the questionnaire. That is, of course, just fine. If you have not seen it or responded to it, then we would encourage you to do so. With this email we wish to assist you with the process.

The reason we have taken this course of action is because we believe it is important for the Ministry in Ottawa to know that the vast majority of Friesian horse owners in Canada are very satisfied with our capability to register our purebred Friesian foals with FHANA, which is directly affiliated with the mother studbook, the KFPS. Any CFHA member who wishes to register a foal can do so with FHANA, as long as it is a mating with purebred parents. If they have used a KFPS approved stallion, the resulting foal becomes part of the official foalbook registry. If the stallion used is not KFPS approved, then FHANA will facilitate a B Book 2 registration. We are aware that the CFHA advocates the cross breeding of Friesians with the resulting offspring often referred to as “ Friesian Sporthorses”. FHANA and KFPS do not tolerate any crossbreeding of our magnificent Friesians, believing that it brings a disservice to our true bloodlines.

Since the CFHA’s wording of their questionnaire is somewhat confusing, you may find it helpful to see my responses to the questionnaire below. We would encourage each one of you to respond to the CFHA’s questionnaire. It is probably easiest to rewrite it in your own email, as I have done, and forward your response to the two email addresses shown just below. The first one is the CFHA’s address as they request in their original email. Our committee has decided it is important to also cc your response to The Ministry, just in case the CFHA decides to delete it because they may see it as not helping their purposes.

The addresses are 1. info@canadianfriesianhorse.ca
2. virginie.rochet@agr.gc.ca

QUESTIONAIRE: Response to Canadian Friesian Horse Association

1. Do you support the CFHA in their Application with the Canadian Government under the APA as described above?
“ NO"

2. Do you own one or more horses of Friesian horses? "YES, only purebred KFPS registered."
Arabo-Friesians? “NO"
Friesian Sporthorses? “NO"

3. Do you breed Friesian Horses? “YES”
Arabo Friesians? “NO”
Friesian Sporthorses? “NO"

4. Do you think Canadians should have the choice to register their horses in Canada?
"YES, but we already do have that ability through The Friesian Horse Association of North America (FHANA). This organization has a history of representing Canadian Friesian horse owners and they are doing a very credible job."

5. Name/Farm name and contact: "Kettle Creek Friesians (info@kettlecreekfriesians.com)"

On behalf of the ad hoc committee: Bert DeBruin, Annie Muilwijk, Wim Florijn and myself.

Kind regards,

Jack Vanderkooy

p.s. any questions? Please email to the following email address:
jvanderkooy@ontarioplants.com