Background

Background

Syenz Technology is a company based in the Wairarapa (1 ½ hours north of NZ’s capital city Wellington) that specialises in equine reproduction, care of the young foal and horses requiring specialised medical care.

The company is family owned and operated by Victoria Vallance in conjunction with Longspring Sport Horses – a stud that over 25 years has a proven track record of producing top quality sport horses that have performed at top level in New Zealand and overseas.

Victoria worked in the animal research industry for 3 ½ years while completing her BSc degree and is now undertaking a Masters in Veterinary Studies at Massey University majoring in Parasitology and Pharmacology. She is also in her third year as the primary lecturer for Applied Science students at Massey University taking the Equine Reproduction paper.

Horses in a plush green field

The specialised facilities required for Syenz are based on Longspring Stud, a 500 acre farm consisting of flat and rolling hill country. On site, we have two fully equipped labs including a purpose built cryoprservation facility to freeze equine semen/embryos and an associated mare crush area for mare handling, insemination and embryo transfer. Frozen semen is being successfully used over the Longspring mares with 3 – 4 foals produced each year.

The infrastructure on site as a fully operating sport horse stud and training centre includes specialised foaling areas with an emergency box for sick foals, a purpose built stable block with 14 boxes, and associated yards and paddocks to suit even the most discerning of horse owners


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Longspring Sport Horses & Distelfink

Longspring Sport Horses Logo

Longspring Sport Horses was set up in 1982 by Rupert and Anne Vallance based on the family farm in the Wairarapa. Rupert had been working with horses all his life including working overseas in Australia, USA and Canada before coming back to New Zealand with his Canadian born wife Anne in 1978. With a long family association with breeding, racing and hunting horses, it was only natural that Rupert would follow on the tradition.

The Vallance’s produced Sturdee who won the Grand National Steeplechase in 1924 with trainer Miss G Maher - one of the NZ’s first women racehorse trainers. The Vallance family originally imported some of the first thoroughbred sires into NZ in the 1890’s – and even in later years, they stood the station stallion Kiritea (predominately TB but with a touch of Percheron) who was the dam sire of Charisma, NZ’s double gold Olympic eventer with Mark Todd.

Distelfink

Distelfink, a fully licensed and performance tested Hanoverian stallion from Germanys State Stud was imported in 1982. His first foals born 1983 made an immediate impact winning in hand classes and going on to be top competitors in NZ and overseas.

Rupert and Anne slowly built up a band of broodmares looking for the good old NZ thoroughbred bloodlines with a record of having produced steeplechasers of showjumpers.

Their adherence to the guidelines of the NZ Hanoverian Society with mares selected on size, conformation and movement to set standards has paid off with early and ongoing success on the breeding front. Distelfink went on to become the leading sire of showjumpers in NZ for over 12 years until this death at 26 years of age in 2004. He was also 3rd in the World as sire of event horses in the 1997 FEI World Breeding Championship for Eventers.

Assorted magazine covers

His best known offspring included Super Moth LS who with John Cottle won over 75 jumping classes (44 at GP level), was Horse of the Year and 5 times Showjumper of the Year (circuit leaderboard) before sale to the USA where he won the Denver World Cup round before a tragic accident put an end to his promising start on an American campaign. As a sire, Distelfink produced over 150 winners including top level showjumpers Super Moth LS, Duty Free LS, Falcon LS, Distinctive Lass, Skylark, Diomedes, Damarusa, Dow Jones LS, Disarm LS, Dallas Cowboy LS, Devlin LS, Demonstrator LS, Detour LS, Distancia, Blondini LS, Hugo, Gabrielle, Kiwi Logic LS, Kiwi Connection, Dealer, Mr Magic, Double O Eight and international eventers GV Braveheart, Denver LS, GV Danzar, Dan the Man LS, Whiplash LS and Freetime.

Over 80 of his youngsters were exported from New Zealand.

The stud continues to produce 15-20 foals a year and campaigns many of them on the circuit with their own rider or under other young riders as Darryl Hodder eventing. Young horses are carefully broken in and prepared under saddle with top results There are usually a number of young horses for sale at any stage at the stud.

The stud now uses several sires from their top bloodlines but is also utilising frozen semen to produce colt prospects from some of the world top jumping bloodlines from Team Nijhof and the Hannoverian State Stud.

Horses grazing in a plush green field

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