The Fire Friesian is a registry for chestnut Friesian horses or chestnut horses who have over 50% Friesian blood.

Wait, aren't Friesians always black?
The short answer: yes and no.

The long answer: it all comes down to one gene, called Extension, that dictates whether or not a horse will have a chestnut coat. In Friesians, this gene has two possible alleles: E and e. Horses always carry two alleles of the Extension gene, meaning that they can be EE, Ee, or ee.

If a Friesian carries at least one Extension E, they're going to be black. For Friesians to be approved as breeding stock, they must have a black coat, meaning that they must carry at least one Extension E. So, yes, breeding-approved Friesians always come in black.

However, if you take two Friesians who carry Extension Ee and cross them together, you can end up with a foal carrying Extension ee. This foal is going to be chestnut. So, no, not all Friesian foals are born black. Some foals are born chestnut.

Chestnut foals born to two Friesian parents are eligible for identification papers only, meaning that they can be registered as 'purebred Friesians,' but they are not part of the main Friesian registry and are not allowed to breed.

But what if you actually love chestnut Friesians and want to breed them anyway? Well, that's where the Fire Friesian Book kicks in.

What's the Fire Friesian Book?
The Fire Friesian Book is a sub-registry of the Friesian Heritage Horse registry. It is dedicated to chestnut Friesian horses who have at least 50% pure Friesian blood and whose non-pure Friesian parent is still a Friesian-cross. This intends to prevent excessive inbreeding among chestnut Friesians.

There are additional rules in place in regard to the Friesian-cross parents and their offspring, such as a cap on the amount of draft of cob blood allowed, a ban on ambling, a requirement of genetic testing for bay and grey horses, and a particular selection process to pick only the parents who can produce Friesian-looking offspring.

Breeding Fire Friesians in Horse Isle:
In Horse Isle,, in order to comply with the Fire Friesian's restrictions and with their overall breeding goal, we made three changes: one, the Fire Friesian is listed as a sub-breed under the Friesian's book; two, we define a 'Fire Friesian' as any Friesian that has a chestnut coat; three, we made the breeding rules stricter.

Because there's no shortage of chestnut Friesians in Horse Isle, then Fire Friesians can only be born to two Friesians, or to two Fire Friesians, or to one Friesian and one Fire Friesian. Crossbreeding is not allowed, and any foals born to a non-Friesian parent will be born as grade foals.

Crossing a pure Fire Friesian with a pure regular (black) Friesian might have two outcomes. If the foal is chestnut, it'll be registered as a purebred Fire Friesian. If the foal is black, it'll be registered as a non-pure Friesian (meaning 0% purity.) This rule is in place in order to comply with the regular Friesian's breeding rules.

Performance metrics:
The following are the: range, average, (SD), and MOE of performance metrics of ordered Fire Friesians in Horse Isle (not bred ones). In rare cases, horses might have metrics outside of the range. Breeders can produce horses that are beyond this range.

Note: these metrics are identical to those of the Friesian.

Speed: 14.5-16.2, 15.4 (0.3), 0.06.
Sprint: 45-57, 52 (2), 0.48.

Accel: 0.90-1.07, 1.00 (0.04), 0.01.
Decel: 0.94-1.08, 1.01 (0.04), 0.01.

Jump: 5.00-5.27, 5.15 (0.06), 0.01.
Pull: 2.51-3.41, 2.89 (0.17), 0.03.

Turning: 51.74-64.67, 58.33 (2.68), 0.53.
Reverse: 2.4-3.1, 2.8 (0.1), 0.03.

Stamina: 47.95-54.05, 51.21 (1.31), 0.26.
Reaction: 0.74-0.83, 0.79 (0.02), 0.00.

Coats & Height:
Color & patterns: always chestnut. Can be flaxen, sooty, or both. The coat is always solid.
* no brindle.

Markings: unlike regular Friesians who can have only a small star, Fire Friesians can have snips, stripes, socks, and large stars. That said, horses that exhibit louder markings are banned from registration.

Height: 14.3hh and 17.1hh.