Maaike B

ACHIEVEMENTS

2018 - Awarded KFPS 2nd Premie Ster and UK Reserve Champion Mare at UK Inspections

Maaike found herself at Greenbank Farm along with her friend Noortje in April 2016, needing somewhere to stay due to their owners losing their grazing and needing to get their personal affairs sorted. Upon arrival, we noticed that Maaike was very lean for a Friesian, as the breed is known for their powerful, muscular and strong frame.

Overtime Maaike’s owners stopped paying for her care and eventually, all contact ceased from them. We served an abandonment notice for both Maaike & Noortje and subsequently, ownership was transferred to Tracey. Maaike was turned away with Noortje in the herd for her to mature and gain some muscle and weight.

Maaike started her training in 2017 as a 5year old and was backed later that year. She showed herself to be quite a quirky mare in the early days of her training being very sensitive and anxious. We took her training at a pace she was comfortable and happy with and the more she grew in confidence she proved she had an eagerness to learn. Maaike is an incredibly sweet, bold, brave and inquisitive mare. She is a compact, nicely put together Friesian who carries herself well with a beautiful uphill movement and a natural ability to work in collection.

We were very keen to take her to the KFPS Inspections in 2018 so she could be entered in the studbook. She was showing great presence and her movement was developing well as she matured. Maaike performed really well, impressing the judges from the Netherlands and was awarded 2nd Premie Ster. We planned to take her to the 2020 inspections to see if she might upgrade to 1st Premie Ster but sadly these were cancelled due to Covid.

Her training has continued and she is improving all the time. Because she is quite anxious when she finds something difficult, she has been a little challenging at times but as she matures and becomes familiar with the work she is developing into an exciting horse to work with. She is a very strong minded mare and her way of evading doing things she finds challenging was to run backwards or rear and spin (which she is exceptionally good at!) but with patience, understanding and maturity these evasions are becoming less frequent.

Maaike has been to a couple dressage competitions where she performed extremely well and coming in the top 3 on each occasion. She takes part in some of the experience days and will be offered to the more experienced technical riders primarily for lessons and the occasional hack. Aside from this in 2022 Maaike is starting her carriage driving training and if all goes well will be happy to give our visitors a chance to have a go at driving themselves.

Maaike is proving to be a great addition to our experiences as she willingly shows her beautiful uphill movement and strong powerful hind leg when moving free in our arena which clearly helps visitors to see the difference in movement types in the breed.

Like all our horses Maaike is guaranteed a home here at the farm for life. She is now a regular resident in our Stable Stays. Although she can be a little anxious when meeting new people, she soon relaxes once you get to know her and is an incredibly kind and sweet companion to share the stable with for the night.
We are excited for her future which we will be sharing with followers through our social media and online training packages.