Unforeseen: The Kardashian of horses

Frederik the Great could well be world’s most popular stallion

NEW YORK: His name is Frederik the Great and he is decked out in black, with hair coiffed in long manly locks that shake in the wind and turn heads as he walks through New York. Frederik is debonair, known first and foremost for his devilishly good looks and the fact that as a consummate stud, i.e. a stallion, he makes more money and has more fans than most human counterparts.

Sometimes called the ‘Kardashian of horses,’ this well-known Friesian, who earns close to $20,000 a month according to owner Stacy Nazario, was recently in the Big Apple for a prestigious horse show and late-night TV appearance. With his enviable social media presence and soon-to-be shampoo line and TV series, the equine star has become a veritable cash cow.

But it wasn’t always all glitter and glam for Frederik, whose stellar career has just as much to do with Nazario’s marketing skills as the horse’s resemblance to Black Beauty of literary fame. After viewing thousands of pictures of Friesians, a breed that comes from the Friesland region of the Netherlands, Nazario, a former construction company owner, bought Frederik in 2007, bringing him from Europe to the rural US state of Arkansas.



After inviting a professional photographer to a photo shoot, she quickly realised her new stallion was extremely photogenic. “Right from the start, he was performing like a true model, looking straight into the camera, a true showman,” Nazario said, during the horse’s recent trip. “He is a gentle giant and can put his nose down on a newborn without hurting him,” she added.

Soon, Nazario created an online presence for the horse, posting photos on the Internet, building a website and starting a Facebook page and Twitter account. Little by little, the internet, with its insatiable appetite for animal photos and videos, took notice. With many baptising Frederik “the world’s most beautiful horse,” the YouTube clicks multiplied, climbing all the way to 15 million views. And Nazario, who now manages Frederik’s busy career full-time, knows how to feed the machine, scheduling photo and video sessions every two to three months to refresh his online presence.

Frederik’s number one asset, his mane, is subject to the most care, requiring daily combing and braiding sessions. An annual haircut, during which nearly three feet (one meter) of mane is trimmed, keeps Frederik’s hooves from becoming tangled in his tresses.

The horse was not only one of the stars of the Rolex Central Park Horse Show but made an appearance on CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert the same week as First Lady Michelle Obama and rock legend Bruce Springsteen.

With great fame comes great restrictions, however, and Nazario does not disclose the location of her Arkansas ranch for security reasons. Nor does she accept every movie offer that comes her way. She has already turned down two, preferring to focus on a mini-series that will feature Frederik’s everyday life, beauty and personality. If everything goes as planned, it will arrive on small screens in approximately a year. Requests to stud the horse, for which Nazario charges $5,500, pour in from across the globe but the selective owner claimed, “There is a waiting list.”

Like any self-respecting celebrity, Frederik could soon have his own beauty line as well. Nazario is working on natural horse and human shampoos and conditioners that she hopes will hit shelves at the beginning of 2017.

The windfall that is Frederik the Great will not last eternally. The horse is already 15, and Friesians generally do not make it past their early twenties. But in the meantime, Frederik is living his best horse life, strutting his stuff and glowing in the social media limelight.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2016.

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