Fairytales and Friesians

So I've decided dressage is A way I want to go maybe not THE way- completely.  Actually, I NEED to go that way even if I stay with eventing in some capacity.  Watching the latest events, you just really have to bring your A game to eventing in the sandbox or you're never going to succeed at it.  Manage and make it through, yes.  Be competitive, no.  I reject your labels!  (Besides Lainey Ashker manages to play in dressage right after competing in Rolex so ne'er)

I'm not a warmblood person really.  I want to be and while I can totally appreciate them, they don't do it for me.  The half warmblood/TB stuff is fine as well but then we're back towards eventing.  Ugh.  I'm going to have to do something for real here. I think of my other criteria I want in this dream horse and decide to be silly.  Let's up the budget even more (I'd already worked my way up to $20K for a warmblood of some sort) and then make it ridiculous: Friesians.

In high school I worked with many different breeds being the only kid at a huge boarding barn of busy adults.  Andalusians, Arabians, TBs, warmbloods, QHs, Saddlebreds, you name it.  I was this freakishly responsible kid who was very logical and thoughtful so people let me work their horses when they couldn't.  And I learned a lot.  One horse I loved was a morgan from Maine.  I learned to drive, ride a small horse, and I just loved how elegant the little guy could look.  Now morgans aren't like Friesians really, but I'd always admired many of the Morgan qualities that Friesians also possess.  That flash and strength for driving carriages (combined driving events sound like a fun compromise or something else to dabble in!), the intelligence, and the forgiving nature. 

Is this something I could do? (Heckyeah!)

Also, I'll admit it - they're gorgeous breeds.

But I'm taller and so the Friesian makes more sense. Its also a carriage breed plus its doing well (enough) in dressage and so I'm starting to think this might be a good idea. But surely the price will put me off, no?  I start shopping the Friesians online with this goal in mind... scare myself back into reality.  What I find are many horses that aren't in the age I'm looking for, most are geldings, and a shockingly HUGE amount of them are competing at say Third level with their noses to their chest. Uh, I don't want to have to undo that, especially on a 10 year old gelding.

So pawing through the FHANA classifieds, I notice that Iron Springs Farm has two girls for sale.  The price... looks reasonable for the age of the horses, the fact they're mares (yay!), plus training ability and I love that they're from ISF.  I KNOW those horses have had a good life to this point and well, I will never forget the ISF commercials from when I was watching all the Spruce Meadows competitions on television in junior high and high school.

(Lainey Ashker also shows a Friesian in dressage... coincidence?)

Could this be the one?

What about this one?

Besides, they have costume classes where people do things like this:

And now I have that reason to actually buy renaissance costumes:

So I mean, how can this NOT be the right idea?  Oh and also their resale stays up, their foals are worth a crapton, and each level I train a horse like this in builds so much value.  So yeah, stay tuned to see what I did :D