Baroque Pinto

The Baroque (or barock) Pinto is a horse breed of Baroque type and pinto colors, founded in the 1950s and 1960s, using the Friesian horse, Dutch Warmblood (KWPN), German Warmblood, and other European warmblood breeds for its foundation stock. Some consider it to be a type of Friesian cross or Friesian Sporthorse, while others consider it to be an emerging breed of its own.
The Baroque Pinto horse was created by an originally serendipitous crossing of a Friesian horse and a Pinto from Gelderland and the birth of a spectacular black and white stallion called Bonte Nico in the 1960s. Further crossbreeding of the Friesian horse with pinto-colored warmblood horses was then carried out in order to create a new breed of pinto colored Baroque type horse, with a minimum of least 25%–40% Friesian blood and sports capabilities. The most common outcrosses are purebred Friesian to Dutch Warmblood (KWPN), German Warmblood, and other European warmblood breeds. More recently, in addition to Friesian, the Andalusian, Lusitano, Lipizzaner, Hispano-Árabe, and Barb horse have been used as foundation stock for the breed. In the United States, Baroque Pinto breeding may involve Friesian and Gypsy Vanner crosses being bred to warmblood horses.
The ideal Baroque Pinto should have a "friendly, generous, and willing character with a lot of charisma, a long mane and tail, and a functional way of moving". The horse should also be "healthy, functional, and have a strongly-built flat black", with a conformation suited to being a sports and "working horse" with a "full tail, lush mane, feathering on the legs, a lot of front end, and a breed-typical head".
The breed standards call for "a good ratio between front, middle and hindquarters; ample muscling; sufficient space in the chest; sufficient ribbing, with the overall picture being harmonious and well developed, with a proud self-carriage and sufficient mass"; "noble head with expressive clear eyes, with the nasal bone preferably slightly concave; wide nostrils and a long mouth gap; small ears, which tend slightly towards each other at the tip"; "a long neck and neck together forming slightly upward curved line, which is nicely muscled, with the jaw-neck connection being light, and the throatlatch having an open underline with space at the throat; a neck rising high from the chest, with smooth connection with the withers"; "long sloping shoulder with well-developed withers, with form a smooth connection between neck and back, with the back being strong and not too long"; "muscular loins, with the croup being of sufficient length, and not too sloping"; and "legs that are hard, of sufficient length, without deviations and correct in leg position; strong joints that provide a solid foundation; and hooves that are of good quality, and of sufficient size". The Baroque Pinto horse should also have "generous hair in the form of mane, tail and lower legs (socks)", with the ideal coloring being "black, with at least two white markings on the body, each with a diameter of at least 10 centimeters".
According to the Friesian Heritage Horse and Sporthorse International Registry, a Baroque Pinto horse must be pinto-colored, including tobiano, overo, splash, sabino, or a combination of these patterns. Black color is preferred, but all colors are allowable, except for gray. Horses with a gray parent are required to be tested negative for the gray gene, and breeding horses suspected to carry overo are required to be color tested for lethal white. Solid horses are not eligible for registration, even if both parents are pinto.
On average, the Baroque Pinto typically ranges anywhere from 14.3 to 16.2 hands (59 to 66 inches, 150 to 168 cm) at the withers. On 1 January 2020, the Barock Pinto Studbook raised the minimum height requirement from 1.53 meters (15.0hh) to 1.56 meters (15.3hh), with 1.58–1.6 meters (16hh) being listed as the ideal height. This makes the Baroque Pinto about the same size as the Friesian, which stands on average about 15.3 hands (63 inches, 160 cm), although it may vary from 14.2 to 17 hands (58 to 68 inches, 147 to 173 cm) at the withers.
The Baroque Pinto, like the Friesian, is used both for recreational purposes and for professional competitive horse sports, including dressage, driving, and other sports.
The Friesian Heritage Horse and Sporthorse International Registry lists three different types of Baroque Pinto foundation stock:
Baroque Pinto Warmblood Heritage (BPW): A documented combination of Friesian with European Barock Pinto and/or European warmblood breeds only; e.g., Dutch Warmblood (KWPN), Hanoverian, Trakehner, Holsteiner, Oldenburger, etc. Must not be under 25% Friesian heritage.
Baroque Pinto American Heritage (BPA): Must be Over 51% Friesian OR a minimum of 50% Friesian, with a minimum of 25% European warmblood OR a minimum of 25% Friesian with a minimum of 50% European warmblood. Breeding a Baroque Pinto Warmblood book horse to a Baroque Pinto American book horse automatically places the resulting offspring into the Baroque Pinto American Heritage Sub-Book. The non-Friesian side of the pedigree should be no less than four generations. Horses may not be over 25% draft horse or Gypsy Vanner blood. Horses who are a combination of Gypsy Vanner and Friesian blood, with no other breed influence, are not eligible for the Baroque Pinto books, but may be registered in the Gypsy Vanner book. Horses who are 50% Friesian and/or horses who do not have a full, four generation pedigree on the non-Friesian side, may be considered for this book with a qualifying High Merit Inspection score, or other show/inspection credentials, by special invitation.
Baroque Pinto Foundation Heritage (BPF): Includes purebred Friesians that have white on two feet and a white face mark; e.g., a star, strip, or blaze. Pinto/Friesian or Barock Pinto horses that were imported from Europe, with a portion of non-documented Friesian heritage, will be considered for the BPF book on a case-by-case basis.
People have been crossbreeding Friesian horses with other breeds for more than a century. In 1879, the Friesian registry created two books for registration, one book for purebred Friesians, and another book for crossbreds. Crossbreeding had become so common by 1907 that the rules were again changed, combining the two books into one book again. This changed again in 1915, with concerns over the potential extinction of the purebred Friesian, and two books were again created. Eventually, two separate Friesian registries were created: Dutch and German.
Today, the Dutch Friesian registry (Dutch: Friese Paarden Stamboek, FPS) and its American counterpart (FHANA, Friesian Horse Association North America) prohibit their registered horses from being used to create crossbred horses. However, the German Friesian registry (German: Friesenpferde Zuchtverband e. V., FPZV) and its American counterpart (FPZV USA) do allow their registered horses to be crossbred with other breeds, but they will not register the crossbred offspring. Both the Dutch and German registries have recognized the severe risks of inbreeding this has created in the breed, and have created policy committees to try to reduce these risks.
While most Friesian horses are known for their solid black coat color today – with chestnut rarely appearing in the breed due to recessive genes – historically, Friesians came in all colors, including pinto. The Baroque Pinto was developed to recreate the pinto coat pattern that was lost with more recent Friesian studbook regulations, with purebred Friesian mares being bred to pinto-colored Gelderlander, Groningen, and Dutch Harness horses in the 1950s. The Baroque Pinto breed goes back to a 1957 foundation stallion named Bonte Nico, who was bred from a Friesian mare and a tobiano Groningen or Gelderlander stallion, and was known for his striking pinto pattern. Bonte Nico, who was owned by Pieter Simon Hellinga Irnsum, was initially accepted into the Dutch Warmblood (KWPN) studbook, but later had his breeding license revoked at the request of the Responsible Breed Federation, which did not want a stallion with pinto coloring breeding to mares. However, Bonte Nico was later re-approved for breeding in 1966, by popular request.
The Baroque Pinto studbook also owes its foundation to the 2003 Grand Prix dressage black pinto-colored Friesian-cross-Dutch Warmblood stallion Willem van Nassau, who is out of the 1997 skewbald Dutch Warmblood mare Pepper, and stands at about 16.1 hands (65 inches, 165 cm); the main line introduced to maintain color in the breed is the bloodline of the 1976 pinto-colored Dutch Warmblood stallion Samber, who stood at 16.2 hands (66 inches, 168 cm). Samber is the only other Dutch Warmblood stallion of pinto coloring ever to be an approved by the KWPN studbook for breeding, and was out of the black tobiano Dutch Warmblood mare Tina D. In the past few decades, the popularity of the Friesian crossbreds has increased, and additional registries have been formed specifically to register and recognize Friesian cross horses and Friesian Sporthorses as separate breeds.
More recently, the studbook for Friesian Sporthorses was founded in 2007 by the Friesian Sporthorse Association (FSA); and in 2008, the FSA trademarked the name "Friesian Sporthorse". The Friesian Sporthorse Association was initially founded in the United States, but shortly thereafter, a branch was added in Australia. The Friesian Sporthorse Association registers Friesian Sporthorses worldwide, including "pinto Friesian Sporthorses". The first studbook exclusively for Baroque Pinto horses was founded in 2009.