Euro Sport Horses is a small competition and stallion stables based in Dunedin, New Zealand. The competition team includes the breeding stallions Euro Sport Centavos, Euro Sport Heartbreaker, and up and coming sire Euro Sport Cassini D'Eclipse. All of our current horses are European imports. Our rider is Claudia Hay. Claudia has competed successfully to horse Grand Prix level since she was 16. Her top acheivements include Pony Show Hunter of the Year Champion 1997 (Pinot Noir), NZ National Pony Grand Prix Champion 2003 (Repia's Super Blonde), the NZ National Young Rider Champion 2008 & NZ Cathay Pacific Grand Prix Series 2008/2009 Champion (Euro Sport Valentino Rossi).
The first horse we imported was Euro Sport Valentino Rossi who arrived in New Zealand in May 2006, after Claudia saw him while riding and working for Tim Stockdale. At that time he was an inexperienced but promising jumper, competing at newcomers level. In the time we have had Valentino Rossi he has moved up the grades to Grand Prix level, with wins and placings in almost every class he competed in. In 2008/2009 season Valentino Rossi became the New Zealand Cathay Pacific Grand Prix Series Champion. In July 2009 Valentino Rossi was sold to Australia.
With the success of Valentino Rossi, we decided to go a step further and import a stallion for breeding as well as competition. In May 2007 we travelled extensively through Holland and Germany, looking at 3 and 4 year old stallions. It was soon apparent that there were amazing horses from all the bloodlines – Holsteiners, Dutch Warmbloods, Belgian Warmbloods, Hanoverians, Westfalians etc. Many Dutch Warmbloods have German origins and many Holsteiners have Thoroughbred blood introduced to their breed. In short, all the breeds and bloodlines have representative offspring at the top level across the disciplines. We were looking for a young stallion with presence, scope, technique and temperament. Not only were these qualities imperative, but the stallion must show a strong resemblance to his bloodlines, in order to leave a stamp on his foals. Because Centavos and Heartbreaker fulfilled our criteria so well, we felt that between them they would complement all the varying mare types in New Zealand.
We are excited about Centavos and Heartbreaker's competition and breeding futures, and the introduction of Euro Sport Cassini D'Eclipse.
