About Us

New Zealand Perfomance Horses (NZPH) was founded in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand in 1995.

Our vision is to breed, produce and sell world class sport horses to the world.

Our primary focus is show jumping. However each year we produce a number of horses whose path to the top will be through eventing or less commonly dressage. This makes us just as proud.

Haupouri Station, Ocean Beach

The breeding and early producing of young horses occurs on Haupouri Station, Ocean Beach, southeast of Hastings and on the east coast of New Zealand.

Haupouri Station is owned by Warwick and Juliette Hansen and provides an outstanding environment for breeding and raising young horses.

The property is some 2,200 acres in size and has five kilometres of beautiful white sand beach. Horses are regularly trained on the beach.

The property runs up to Cape Kidnappers, home of a rare gannet colony and a super-premium golf course and Lodge developed by Julian Robertson, billionaire founder of the New York based Tiger Fund.

Breeding

The business began in 1995 with the purchase of twelve well-performed New Zealand thoroughbred and local warmblood-cross mares and the signing of an agreement with Groupe France Elevage (then Equitechnic) in France for the importation of frozen semen from the very best European sport horse stallions.

The breeding lines produced by these Foundation mares are set out in the mare breeding lines section of this website.

From this beginning we began the long process of building an absolutely top-class broodmare herd. Our philosophy from the very beginning, and it remains the same today, has always been to turn the very best mares back into the broodmare herd to build the business. We now have a broodmare herd of forty and are likely to continue to build this to fifty in the years to come.

It has taken us fifteen years and four generations of breeding to achieve the scale and quality that we seek in our broodmares. Just one Foundation mare now remains but the blood of the New Zealand thoroughbred still courses through our mares.

In 2001 we accelerated our programme by importing five Selle Francais filly foals from France. We added the blood of Barcelona Olympic medalist, Quidam de Revel, Uriel, Papillion Rouge and xxxx amongst others to our broodmare herd. The pedigree of these mares and their progeny born in New Zealand can be seen in the French mare pedigree section of the website.

Producing young horses

Insemination, foaling and are the raising of young horses all happens on Haupouri Station. The broodmares produce around 30 foals a year (an exceptionally high percentage for artificial insemination for which we have to thank our world-class breeding manager, Fiona Gilles).

Foals are handled from a young age but the young horses very largely grow up untroubled on the hills in coastal Hawkes Bay in paddocks of up to 100 acres. Their bones and joints grow strong, they learn agility and develop quickness in mind and body in an environment far different form the small flat fields and boxes of the Northern Hemisphere.

Supplementary feeding programs aid growth and development.

At the age of two, rising three, the ‘breaking’ (which is in effect an extension of the handling process) occurs and the young horses are lunged, begin their flatwork training and are free-jumped.

A number of young mares with the right pedigree, talent and conformation are chosen to join the broodmare herd, taking the place of a less pedigreed mare and they begin a life of breeding.

The geldings and remaining mares, including those that have come out of the broodmare herd, are then carefully developed and trained.

Enter the riders

Around March each year the young horses are paired with a rider. The riders take a share in the horses and train, compete and, when the time is right, sell the horses. NZPH retains an ownership share throughout and the riding and breeding partners work together to find the best home for each horse.

NZPH partners with eight New Zealand based and one Australian based rider. All are high-class trainers and competitors.

The NZPH riders:
Bridget Hansen
Billy Raymont
Sally & Phillip Steiner
Tom Tarver-Priebe

Horse sales

Horse sales are by private treaty.

Contact details
Postal Address: Haupouri Station, RD 12, Havelock North, Hawke's Bay, NEW ZEALAND
Street Address: 296 Ocean Beach Road, Havelock North, Hawke's Bay, NEW ZEALAND
Phone: +64 6 874 7896
Fax: +64 6 874 7629

Founders

The founders of NZPH are Warwick and Juliette Hansen and David and Brigit Kirk.

Warwick and Juliette own and farm Haupouri Station and the nearby Okahu Station in addition to managing the day-to-day operations of NZPH. Warwick was an accomplished Grand Prix Showjump rider. He retired in 1995 but his Grand Prix horse, Anchorman, continued to compete, winning the Horse of the Year title in 1996. When Warwick retired he decided New Zealand needed better bred horses, to accompany the pool of talented riders. He now is chairman of the HOY show.

David Kirk is a well-known New Zealander having captained the New Zealand national rugby team, the All Blacks, to victory in the 1987 Rugby World Cup. David currently lives in Sydney, Australia and has had a varied career. He is a Rhodes Scholar and after graduating from Oxford University he worked for McKinsey & Co in London, and then the Prime Minister of New Zealand in Wellington, New Zealand. He then began a business management career chiefly in the media and entertainment business. Form 2005 to late 2008 he was Chief Executive of the publicly listed Fairfax Media and among other things is currently the Executive Chairman of the Hoyts Corporation.