Our History

 

The Vallance family have a long involvement with horses going right back to 1842 when they settled in the Wairarapa at Kahumingi Station. In 1982, Rupert and Anne Vallance setup Longspring Sport Horses with the importation of DISTELFINK, a specialised jumping sire from Germany. Over the years, DISTELFINK bloodlines have proven to cross well with our NZ bloodlines. 

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DISTELFINK - NZs leading sire for 15+ years

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Rupert and Anne Vallance officially set up Longspring in 1982, when they syndicated and imported a licensed Hanoverian stallion from West Germany. Distelfink (by Diskus out of St Pr St Doreen by Duker) was one of the first jumping specialised stallion to be brought into New Zealand. In the years that followed, until his death in 2004 at the age of 26, Distelfink proved to be a leading sire of competition horses across all disciplines, but especially show jumping.

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Honour Roll

 

Overall, Longspring's most famous show jumping offspring was Super Moth by DISTELFINK who formed a formidable partnership with Olympic rider John Cottle. By the end of Super Moth’s career, he had won more than 75 classes including 44 at Grand Prix level. But other names are equally well known - FALCON LS with Catriona Williams, DUTY FREE with Maurice Beatson,  DANZAR and GV BRAVEHEART with Olivia Bunn, SKYLARK with Katie McVean, DIOMEDES LS with Philip Steiner, BLONDINI with Penny Stevenson, DEALER LS with Anna Stephen, DENVER LS with Catriona Williams and DOUBLE O'EIGHT with Tessa Williams. And then there are the progeny out of DISTELFINK mares ...  

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Currently Competing

 

Once DISTELFINK died, the stud did not produce as many youngsters as in the heyday for sport horse breeding in the 1980s and 1990s.  But a mixture of bloodlines is now out there carrying on the good performance that is reflected in the stud's history. We will be adding to this section over time.  It appears that the eventing talents are coming to the fore in our offspring!

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Riders and Trainers

Over the years, we have had a number of riders working with us to produce horses.  The current ones can be viewed here. 

In January of this year, we sent 4 young horses to be broken in and ridden by a profession from Europe. The results were incredible.