In 1994, government agency UNIC met the New Zealanders at the airport and toured them through the top studs.
"No one had brought in the frozen semen to New Zealand before and we had to get a protocol from MAF to import it," Mr Hansen said.
He was invited to meet with Minister of Agriculture John Falloon and prime ministerial adviser David Kirk. After several more meetings, Mr Kirk became a shareholder in the New Zealand Performance Horses (NZPH) venture.
Mr Kirk is best-known as the first Rugby World Cup-winning All Black captain.
The Rhodes Scholar was no stranger to Hawke's Bay, his wife Brigit was originally from Porangahau and they owned a bach in Pourerere.
Mr Kirk worked as a consultant with McKinsey & Co in London before serving as chief policy adviser for the New Zealand Government.
He was CEO of Fairfax in 2006 when it bought Trade Me for $700 million and now resides in Sydney.
"We went around the country and bought the 12 best showjumping mares we could find," Mr Hansen said.
It cost less than $100,000. A similar exercise today would "easily" cost more than $1 million.
They hired a French artificial insemination technician for two seasons, who then taught employee Fiona Gillies who continued for 18 years.
"It was a bit of a mixture to start off with because we didn't know what the mares were like," he said.
"We were very lucky at the start - not so much financially lucky - but about 80 per cent were fillies for a number of years. So we grew our broodmare herd very quick, to have 50 per cent European and 50 per cent New Zealand."
The first season had a 70 per cent foaling rate "then went up to 85 per cent most years".
He said the French average was about 75 per cent.
The Hawke's Bay climate suited breeding horses, he said.
"France has a similar climate. To breed good horses you have to go to anywhere that grows good wine. That's why France is so good and Hawke's Bay so good.
"The French have wide parameters to get the perfect horse and we are doing the same. We will add a little bit of New Zealand thoroughbred because there is nothing better for stamina then the New Zealand thoroughbred - we try to have some mares with some thoroughbred in them.
"We are mostly French-bred but we are now moving more into European breeds - German and Dutch and Belgian stallions."
Show jumping legend John Cottle kept a close eye on the operation and was one of the first customers in 2000.
NZPH horses competed widely, building the NZPH breed's reputation.
"We had very good riders like Anna Trent who wrote all our young show jumpers. She took Muskateer NZPH to the Las Vegas World Cup final in 2009."
The farm borders Ocean Beach, which he said was an asset to the business. It was "a relaxant" - mentally good for the horses.
"A ride on the beach is like a day off for them."
NZPH has a turnover of $700,000 and growing, selling horses to the United States, Japan, Mexico, New Caledonia "and a lot into Australia, obviously".
"We probably export $400,000 a year. We are now the biggest sport horse breeder in Australasia - there is no one else doing it at our scale in either country."
Most people thought sport horse breeding was "just too much hard work".
"It is an interesting game. When we first started we obviously got a lot of advice from the French and they said it was a 10-year project before it looks good. It really takes 20 years to get your breed where you want it to be, which for many people is just too long."
Horses are started at age 5 and competition lifespan is longer than most.
"The lifespan of racehorses is gone by the time they are 6 or 7 whereas we are looking at starting at a 5-year-old going through to 20-year-old."
Until fully started, horses were broken by Tumanako "Tui" Teka and lightly worked.
"You want them to grow. The most important thing for us in New Zealand is to make sure they are growing naturally, not like in Europe where they are growing them with feed.
"Our horses last a lot longer than they do in Europe - the horses are far better off with natural Hawke's Bay grass.
"We get longevity of the horse and its joints. We have horses now that are competing at 17-18-years-old."
Levitation NZPH is retiring from four-star eventing at the age of 18.
"He just did World Cup Showjumping as well - he is the only horse in the world that has done both."
Some thoroughbreds have longevity. Mark Todd and Charisma won their second Olympic gold medal for eventing with Charisma aged 16 but, wouldn't-you-know it, Charisma's bloodline is in NZPH mares.
There are about 180 horses on the farm "and we try to restrict that now because we need to farm as well."
The Hansens own two Cape Kidnapper farms with a combined 21,000 ha.
Their 50/50 beef and sheep operation buys in 1000 18-month-old bulls each year, supplementing their diet with silage and grain on a feed-pad, and supplies Coastal Spring Lamb.
They are still recovering from epic 2011 rainfall, when a helicopter was the only way to survey damage and find stock.
Few hillsides held onto topsoil and landslides destroyed fencing leaving 400 cows and 100 horses to roam free. Luckily only one horse died.
Warwick and wife Juliet have sold the homestead to David Kirk and are building a new house on the farm.
"There is a lot of work involved in keeping this house and garden, that is one of the reasons why we want a smaller place."
Another reason is so he can spend more time on the farm and NZPH businesses, becoming more hands-on so he can be later hands-off.
His focus now was "mostly helping my daughters to have a business that they want to grow into".
Hilary, 26, manages farming operations and Bridget, 23, the Australian arm of NZPH where she competes on the Australian show-jumping circuit.
"All the good horses are in Australia at the moment. We didn't bring them back for Horse of the Year - we just wanted to see how Horse of the Year went this year."
Ironically, his only concern voiced was fewer horses competed this year.
Mr Hansen chaired the show's organising committee for 10 years and his brother Kevin managed it for 18.
His brother's contacts came in handy.
"I was able to get to places because they all wanted to talk to Kevin".
He said business was good for NZPH.
"The horses have performed at a really good level so now our buyers want to come and buy younger horses.
"We are now getting a lot of sales of 3 and 4-year-olds, whereas in the early days we had to sell them as 7-year-olds."
He has no plans to put his feet up.
"We just like a job. "We don't make the kind of money we could have made in some other ways.
"Sometimes it's not all about making money."
