The Ride of Kings: Frederiksborg Horses Breed Feature

HorsesBreed Feature
Written By Irina S

Jun 13, 2025

By Irina S. 13/06/2025

Frederiksborg horses are the oldest Danish horse breed. Their sole purpose being to preform their tasks elegantly and efficiently. For hundreds of years they have been the most trusted companions of Danish kings. This breed gave refined saddle, carriage, and even military horses.

With a stunning posture, these horses catch everyone's attention. Their head is held high, followed by a long, strong back, high withers, and a level croup. Frederiksborg horses carry their tail high in all gates (paces). Their broad chest is proportionate to their legs, which have good sized joints and a somewhat upright, powerful shoulder. These features make the Frederiksborg horse a suitable ride for multiple types of riders. They stand at a height ranging from 15.1hh to 16.3hh in which mares vary between 15.3hh to 16.1hh and stallions 16.0hh to 16.3hh. All pure colors are accepted by by the breed standard however most common is chestnut. All markings are allowed. Especially in Frederiksborg horse breeding the color buckskin is referred to as Yellow and palomino horses as Isabella.

Frederiksborg stallion named Juvel Vejvad https://www.fhf.dk/vare/juvel-vejvad/

Frederiksborg horses are considered a very rare breed today but in order to fully understand what happened we need to take a quick dive into their history. During the reign of King Frederik II the Royal Frederiksborg Stud was formed in 1562. The king's beloved horses were crossed with other breeds to bring out the best characteristics of the Frederiksborg horse. As more and more people learned about the existence of these beautiful animals, they were heavily exported or gifted to other countries. This lead to the closing of the Royal Stud Farm around 1871 due to mixed bloodlines. However, the Frederiksborg horses have left their stamp on some of the most famous breeds. Pluto, a gray Frederiksborg born in 1765 founded one of the Lipizzaner blood lines. The breed is also ancestor of Knabstrupper, Orlov Trotter, Old-Oldenburger, Groningen, and Wormblood horses. Two famous Warmbloods, Sir Donnerhall I & II and Concetto Famos originate from Frederiksborg dam lines.

Frederiksborg stallion named Saxo Søndergård https://www.fhf.dk/vare/saxo-soendergaard/

Today Frederiksborg horses are classified as light horses, half-blood, and overall great pleasure and competition rides. They are known for their calmness, willingness to work, intelligence, and they are considered to be quite "bomb proof". In 2019 only 57 Frederiksborg foals were born in Denmark but many private farms as well as the Frederiksborg Horse Breeders Association (fhf) are doing their best to preserve this endangered breed.

These horses excel in all the competitive disciplines and deserve to shine for many years to come. I will leave some interesting links down below if you want to check out more about the Frederiksborg horses. I also want to remind you to check out my other posts if you are interested to find out more about what I do. Thank you for reading till the end!

This article is entirely written by myself after doing extensive research and no phrases have been copied from other sources without being quoted.

Irina S
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