Committee Member Profile—Doug Koch

As owner of Berkshire Stud, veterinarian Koch has produced four New York-bred champions and 25 stakes horses.

Caring for 35 mares, 19 foals, 65 ewes, three racehorses-in-training, and three Jack Russell terriers, Douglas Koch (pronounced "cook") D.V.M., has his work set out for him on a daily basis. An equine veterinarian in private practice for more than 15 years, these days Koch manages his 550-acre thoroughbred breeding farm, Berkshire Stud, in Pine Plains, New York.

As the representative of the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund Board, Koch, 46, is one of the newest members of the Zweig Committee. A native Chicagoan, he says he is merely fulfilling his lifelong interest in animals. Although a city boy, he spent many summers visiting relatives who owned cattle, hog, and sheep farms and had his sights set on becoming a veterinarian early in life.

Koch's veterinary career, though, can probably be traced back to high school and his need for a summer job. In Chicago, if he wanted to work with animals, he had two choices-the zoo or the racetrack. Because large animals, particularly horses, were his primary interest, he pretended to be 16 (after all, he was only a year short) and landed his first-choice job as a groom at Arlington Park Racetrack.

Working at the racetrack on and off for years as well as for various veterinarians, Koch pursued his undergraduate and veterinary degrees at the University of Illinois and then did his internship and residency at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center. While in veterinary school, he met his future wife, Christine, who is also an equine veterinarian and still practices full-time in Westchester and Dutchess counties.

After veterinary school, Koch came to Cornell as an assistant professor of surgery for a year before deciding to relocate to Westchester to open a private practice. For the next 15 years, he worked full-time caring for horse at the Belmont and Aqueduct racetracks.

In 1983, Koch started Berkshire Stud and he's been working full-time on the farm since 1992. Although horses are his primary interest-Berkshire Stud has raised four New York-bred champions and 25 stakes horses-Koch also raises Hampshire sheep breeding stock to rotate into his horse fields. "Sheep are the ideal companion animals to horses because their cloven hooves and high-nitrogen wastes help restore the fields. Also, they eat every weed known to man," he says. His sheep were the champion Hampshire flock at the New York State Fair this year.

Although a rookie on the Zweig Committee, Koch brings to the committee about five years experience on the New York State Thoroughbred Breeding and Development Fund Board. He also serves on the Equine Advisory Committee of the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine, the Veterinary Advisory Committee of the Jockey Club/Grayson Foundation, and is a past president of the New York Thoroughbred Breeders. His goals for the Zweig Committee are to support Cornell research and help represent breeders' interests in making that research as practical as possible.