After a few years of working alongside previous owner of Astek Stud Sue Fowler in December 2021, Taupo couple Katie Bird and Sophie Wilkinson fully took over the reins of this sport horse breeding and training stud and are excitedly making their own plans for its future.

The pair have successful businesses in their own right.

Katie runs an equine therapy and rehabilitation practice, and Sophie spends three months of the year on the road performing sheep pregnancy scanning.

Both are experienced eventers, with Katie conceding it's more of a hobby for her, while Sophie has been competing seriously for many years.

'Together we have plans to accommodate our existing businesses, alongside the core business of Astek Stud, which is the breeding and training of quality sports horses,” says Katie.

Designated areas

They bought a 75-acre property near Taupo in August 2020 and have achieved as much as they could have with Covid restrictions.

Work will be ongoing to split the five huge paddocks into smaller ones, so the horses will all have designated areas.

'The composite plastic posts, sturdy chain link fencing, topped with the hot tape is a much more forgiving and suitable option for horses than post and wire. We bought a tractor and post rammer and Sophie quickly learned how to fence!” says Katie.

They also graze 35 dairy heifers, and 40 Texel and Suffolk sheep which Sophie breeds.

In their enthusiasm they had the 90 metre by 75 metre pumice topped arena built on the flattest part of the property before realising that it floods in winter.

'We lost the arena a couple of times and now it has a moat all the way around, which collects and diverts water to a culvert. It's taught us to take our time and watch how different areas of our land react to changing seasons,” says Sophie.

The arena facilitates training their horses and teaching riding lessons in dressage and show jumping.

The goal is to have their own cross country course on the farm.

The barn

Learning from the arena mistake, the 28 metre by 46 metre barn has been built up on high ground with stunning 360 degree views.

It is to be multi-functional with eight stables with eight outdoor yards for any horse that requires them, such as mares about to foal or rehab horses, plus two further large versatile stables will be available.

There will be a vet room with a mare and foal crush to facilitate scans and x-rays, and a kitchenette for prepping collected semen for transportation.

'We'll have a toilet, laundry for washing the horse rugs, and a lecture/admin room with an area if one of us needs to be on foal watch or watching a rehab horse overnight,” says Katie.

A tack room, feed room, hay store, wash down area, leg soak, tie ups, truck and float parking will also be accommodated.

Sophie and Katie have put a lot of thought into the barn project and intend to make it fully off-grid with solar power and roof water.

Outside they plan to build a large greenhouse against the north facing end of the barn and hope to grow some fruit trees inside as well.

'We really want to grow our own food and be quite self-sufficient, but our attempts so far have failed. The weather in our area is cold with strong winds and driving rain,” says Katie.

The horses

The stallion paddocks are already completed, providing a separate area for their two stud stallions, 11-year-old Astek Quatermaster and seven-year-old S W E Dempsey.

Their horses mean everything to them.

The couple have sold a lot of horses through Astek Eventers and realised they're breeding exceptionally versatile sports horses suited to any discipline.

'Taking over Astek's stud and stallions this year has enabled us to improve our breeding programme and further improve our reputation as demand for our horses rises,” says Sophie.

'Semen is collected from both stallions and we co-ordinate visiting mares through the artificial insemination process and take them back nearer to foaling to oversee that.”

They are very proud of their first season last year, with 100 per cent of outside mares left in foal on their first cycle.

Katie and Sophie have six competition horses between them, six brood mares and two stallions, the foals and youngsters in training, alongside mares visiting for AI or foaling, and any number of rehab horses on the property at any one time.

After all the animal related areas are finished, this hard working pair have a dream to build a rustic, environmentally friendly log cabin for themselves, that takes in the far reaching views and glimpses of Lake Taupo and Mount Ruapehu.

Katie Bird and Sophie Wilkinson – proud new owners of Astek Stud. Photo: Catherine Fry