About UsMy name is Erica Lock van Gelder and I live with my husband John and our 3 children on Coonatto Station.
Coonatto Station is an 11,000 acre property situated in the beautiful Southern Flinders Ranges in South Australia, approximately 300 km north of Adelaide and about 70 km east of Port Augusta.
Our stud is centrally located within Australia.
I was born and bred in Holland and it was there when I first fell in love with the Friesian horse.
I came to Australia on a holiday in 1994 when I met John, we married in 1995 and the rest is as they say history.
“Follow your dreams”
We consider ourselves very lucky that we were able to “follow our dreams” in setting up our stud “Van Gelder Friesians”.
We have a strong foundation of imported Friesian mares as well as an imported Friesian foal book Star Stallion with a KFPS breeding permit and KFPS sport predicate.
All the sires and the sires of the dams of our horses have been approved on offspring.
The majority of these sires have proven themselves as performance horses and as a result received the KFPS sport predicate.
Our objective is to breed Friesian horses of excellent quality and to strive for continual upgrading of our breeding lines.
This will give Australian and overseas buyers a better chance of purchasing Friesian horses with the capability of those bred in Europe without the cost of importing.
We have imported high quality in uterus foals by approved stallions and have successfully bred foals with the use of frozen semen from approved stallions.
We have also bred high quality foals by our stallion Hilwert L. Sport.
At the 2011 Keuring, our filly Hermione (Hilwert L. Sport) was awarded a first premie (she was the only foal in Australia and New Zealand to receive a first premie).
Our filly Isabel (Hilwert L. Sport) received a second premie.
Whilst we don’t breed “old style” Friesian horses, we stay “true” to the Friesian breed by breeding Friesian horses that have the temperament and the looks of a Friesian horse.
All our Friesian horses have fantastic natures and are safe for our children to handle, even the young ones. We imprint and handle our foals; however we believe it is very important to allow our foals to bond with their dams.
Our foals are raised in a herd with special care taken to ensure their nutritional and health needs are met on a daily basis.
All our Friesian horses are registered with the KFPS and the ANZFHS.
We are members in good standing with both societies.
Two of our paddocks are approved by AQIS.
Visitors welcome, please contact us for an appointment.
Kind regards Erica Lock van Gelder
