Double E Stables: FACILITIES
ROYDON LODGE

Roydon Lodge was added to our facilities in April 2006 when it was leased off Keith Gibson.

Gibson bought Roydon Lodge Stud Ltd off Sir Roy McKenzie, of Wellington, five years ago. Roydon Lodge was in earlier years established by Sir Roy's late father Sir John McKenzie.

The establishment became a landmark breeding and training farm with great sires U Scott ad Light Brigade being pillars of the industry. So was trainer the late George Noble and subsequent successful stallions Game Pride, Smooth Fella, Captain Adios, Thurber Frost and Sundon.

Michael House first worked at Roydon Lodge in 1983 after earlier stints with Delvin Rickerby and Frank Murfitt.

He stayed eight years at Roydon Lodge and was in awe of the magnificent standing and success of the establishment through halcyon times marked by great sires and race horses.

Scottish Hanover, Game Pride and Smooth Fella were standout sires as were the racehorses Roydon Glen, Roydon Scott, Arndon and Sundon.

"It was a magical era when sales were also booming and the whole industry was on a high,'' House said.

Two blocks involved in the deal make up Roydon Lodge, a homestead block and an agistment block.

House said he would like to establish a boutique operation for clients that provided the complete start to finish service from conception of a foal to the selling or training of it.


 

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FARM
(CLICK TO VIEW) (CLICK TO VIEW) (CLICK TO VIEW) (CLICK TO VIEW) (CLICK TO VIEW) (CLICK TO VIEW) (CLICK TO VIEW) Breeding Shed (CLICK TO VIEW) RTR Colts at dinner time

We purchased our farm from John Seaton privately and moved to it 17 AUGUST 1994 . At that time it was 24 acres - 18 horse barn - 2 tracks - with the property cut into 12 paddocks .

In the past 10 years we have purchased a neighbouring property and doubled the size to 50 acres including another track , developed 15 yards and shelters ,extended haybarns , built a semen lab, swimming pool, truck and trailer float shed .

With another 20 paddocks introduced though re- fencing we are in a postion where we can put a colt in just about any paddock and can manage up to 30 colts at any given time.

We have also a grazing property for our Broodmares which we have leased for a number of years in the WEST MELTON district.

It has been our aim to produce horses for the market at all levels and we have been breeding more every year.But untill such time as we have a grazing block that can handle more than 10 mares we will be contained to this amount.

We have attemped to continuely improve our property as funds and time avail and we are proud of the fact that we have as a team built up our asset to a workable horse farm .

A feature of our property is the extensive shelter and it gives us and our horses great protection from the weather.

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SEMEN LAB
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We built our semen lab out of a re- furbished garage which was brought in second hand , relined and fitted out with all the latest technology for the collection then distribution of semen thoughout NEW ZEALAND and AUSTRALIA. With achieving good results for pregancies being our aim, sending out almost 100% of the semen to other farms is totally relying on the receiving farm to have the mare ready to ovulate.

Our horse management software is second to none and as it is web based product it means that we can access any of our stud information from any computer in the world. It has been developed by the award winning computer team at HRNZ primarly to lead the world in collection of information of the breeding of STANDARDBREDS . The information we have at fingertips in the breeding shed is incredible and furthermore the team are forging ahead with more exicting projects.

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SWIMMING POOL
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A bungy pool with an 18meter by 3.5 swimming area has been constructed during the winter of 2003 .

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