How to Read a KFPS Pedigree

When the paperwork arrives at the buyer's vet's office, the pedigree document is the one I tell them to read first. It contains more about the horse's future than the radiographs do. But the document is written in Dutch shorthand, uses a predicate system most buyers have never seen, and assumes you can recognise the stallion lines. This post is the quick-translate version.

If you can read a KFPS pedigree, you can tell within ninety seconds whether a horse is worth your time.

The document itself

The KFPS pedigree (officially called the afstammingsbewijs, or "ancestry certificate") is a single sheet, sometimes folded. The right side shows the horse's identification — name, microchip number, date of birth, colour, sex, sire and dam. The left side shows the three- or four-generation pedigree fanning out from the horse's name like a tree.

A few practical details:

• The original is on textured cream paper with a watermark. A photocopy is not the same as the original; for an expensive horse, ask to see the original before closing.
• The microchip number on the document must match the chip in the horse's neck. Verify with a scanner. This is the single most common source of paperwork errors.
• The blue band at the top means the horse is in the main KFPS Stud Book. A green band means the Foal Book (under three years old). A red band means the horse has been registered under one of the appendix categories — chestnut, missing one Friesian parent, etc.

The predicate column

Each ancestor's name on the pedigree is followed by a string of letters in parentheses. These are predicates — KFPS quality awards based on inspection at the keuring (the annual breed inspection). They are the single most useful data in the document.

The main predicates, weakest to strongest:

• Ster — "Star." Awarded to mares and stallions that pass first inspection on conformation, movement, and breed type. The minimum bar for any quality breeding horse. About 30% of inspected mares earn it.
• Kroon — "Crown." A higher predicate; awarded to mares that already have Ster and have produced a Ster-quality foal that earned its own first-premie. Maybe 5% of inspected mares.
• Model — The top predicate for mares. Awarded after a re-inspection that includes a more rigorous movement and conformation assessment. About 1% of mares reach Model.
• Preferent — "Preferred." Awarded to mares (or rarely stallions) whose offspring have themselves earned high predicates. A Preferent mare has produced the next generation; it is the predicate that matters most to a breeder.
• Sport — Awarded to horses that have proven themselves in actual competition (dressage, driving) at a defined level. Separate from the conformation predicates.
• Performance — Similar to Sport but for breeding-stallion testing.
• AA / Approved — Used on the stallion side; "AA" means the stallion is officially approved by KFPS for breeding.

When you see a name like "Tjalbert 460 Sport" on the pedigree, that means: Tjalbert is the registered name, 460 is the KFPS-approved stallion number, "Sport" is the awarded predicate from competition.

The stallion number system

KFPS-approved stallions are numbered sequentially as they are approved. The number gives you a rough birthdate:

• Numbers below 350 — pre-2000 stallions, mostly retired or deceased
• 350–400 — early 2000s
• 400–450 — late 2000s
• 450–500 — 2010s
• 500+ — 2020s onward

A stallion number means the horse passed the KFPS stallion approval — a multi-year process involving inspections, sport testing, performance testing, and offspring inspection. Roughly 0.5% of colts inspected each year become approved stallions. The number is meaningful.

A horse whose sire is an approved stallion (any number) is automatically more valuable. A horse whose sire is a "Sport"-predicated approved stallion — Tjalbert 460 Sport, Wybren 464 Sport, Norbert 444 Sport — has the best probability of producing under-saddle quality.

What jumps off a strong pedigree

When I am evaluating a horse for the program, I look at four things on the pedigree before anything else:

1. The sire's predicate. An approved stallion (any number) is the baseline. An approved Sport stallion is a real signal. An approved-but-no-Sport stallion is fine for show or pleasure, less so for dressage.

2. The dam's predicate. A Ster mare is the minimum I want to see for any horse I am paying real money for. A Kroon or Preferent dam doubles the value. A Model dam is rare and worth pursuing.

3. The second-generation grand-sires. Both grand-sires should be approved stallions. Two approved grand-sires plus an approved sire is the pattern I want to see — it means the horse comes from a line that has been consistently producing approved stallions, which is the strongest signal of genetic quality.

4. No repeated names. If the same stallion appears twice in the pedigree — say, as both the maternal great-grandsire and the paternal grandsire — the horse is inbred to that ancestor. Friesians have a narrow gene pool already; you want to see a clean four-generation pedigree with no doubling.

What should make you walk away

Three patterns that are red flags:

• No predicates anywhere on the dam side. The mare has been registered but never inspected. Means the breeder either didn't pursue quality awards or the mare didn't pass them. Either way, it's missing information.
• A double-up of a controversial sire (say, the same sire appearing on both the sire and dam side within two generations). Increases the carrier risk for the genetic conditions tested in the previous post.
• A "Foal Book" (green band) horse being sold as Stud Book quality. Foal Book means the horse has not yet been inspected. The seller is asking you to pay Stud Book prices on Foal Book information. Wait until the horse is inspected.

A worked example

Take Saskia fan de Bergen, one of the mares on the property:

• Sire: Tjalbert 460 Sport — approved stallion, Sport predicate, mid-2010s vintage. Strong.
• Dam: Lieuwke fan de Bergen, Ster Sport AA — Ster predicate, Sport predicate, Approved (AA means she passed inspection for breeding). Strong.
• Both maternal grandsires approved stallions. No doubled ancestors in four generations. Five-panel clear. Born 2021.

That pedigree tells me — without watching her move once — that Saskia has the genetic potential for the sport ring and has the lineage to hold value as a broodmare. The under-saddle quality I have to verify by riding. The genetics, the document told me before I walked to her stall.

One last thing

The pedigree document is also the easiest piece of paperwork to forge, and it does happen. For any Friesian over $20,000, ask the seller to provide a fresh KFPS verification by emailing administratie@kfps.nl with the horse's microchip number — they will confirm the horse exists in their database and what its registered predicates are. Free, takes two business days, and worth every minute.

That email is the cheapest insurance you can buy on a Friesian sale.