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New Mexico State University

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Lou Berkompas No horsing around for Berkompas

By the end of March, Lou Berkompas, NMSU livestock assistant supervisor, had his hands full and then some.

Twenty-one foals had arrived at NMSU's Horse Center, and he was awaiting three more. He also was watching the brood mares closely, so they could be bred again at just the right time. He was keeping an eye out, too, for important Federal Express deliveries--genetic contributions from prize stallions.

Spring is no carefree time for Berkompas. But after working for the College of Agriculture, Consumer and Environmental Sciences' horse program for more than 20 years, he's used to the hectic schedule.

Berkompas was a junior studying animal science in 1976, when he was recruited to help handle and break 28 Arabian mares that had been donated to NMSU.

"There was no Horse Center at that time," he says. "The horses were scattered all over the university."

Berkompas continued as a work-study student with the horse program during his senior year, then took a job as a herdsman after graduation.

In 1977, he built fences and planted pastures so the horses could be moved out to the new, 48-acre Horse Center, located 1.5 miles west of campus on Union Avenue in Mesilla Park. By the late 1970s, a quarter horse breeding program was underway.

Since the beginning, Berkompas has appreciated the quiet of the Horse Center, when it's just him and the three stallions, dozen yearlings, 25 to 30 brood mares and their offspring. But he also enjoys the contact with students as they arrive throughout the day for their hands-on classes.

"Everything we do out here involves the students," Berkompas says.

Each spring, that means chores like getting the yearlings ready for the college's annual horse sale and breeding the brood mares as part of professor Joe Armstrong's classes.

There's a lot of science involved in breeding the mares. About nine days after they give birth, they go into heat again. To accurately pinpoint the best time for breeding, Berkompas uses an ultrasound machine to monitor when the developing follicles on the ovaries are ready to release an egg.

In the meantime, if a mare is to be artificially inseminated with semen from a stallion outside the NMSU herd, Berkompas has to arrange for it to be shipped on the right day. The cooled semen must be used within 24 to 48 hours of collection.

Then the watch begins again, as Berkompas uses ultrasound to detect pregnancies as early as 14 days after insemination.

As he keeps track of the brood mares' progress, there are other duties to, such as giving vaccinations, trimming feet and the never-ending maintaining of pastures and fences.

"Yes, spring is the busiest," Berkompas admits with a little smile.


Sunny & Don Billings A stable of champions

Sunny has made a name for himself in a businessmen's association. After a successful career as a national competitor, Joyce retired this year.

No, these aren't two stellar NMSU graduates. They are examples of the qualityquarter horses that come out of NMSU's breeding program and are sold at the university's annual horse auction.

Sunny's real name is NMSU Swinger, while Joyce is known as NMSU Joyce Pat Star.

Don Billings, an electrical contractor in Las Cruces, bought the 4-year-old Sunny as a yearling. He broke Sunny and trained him for team roping.

"He's a great big, strong, nice colt," Billings says. "His mom was a race horse, and he's real athletic, which is perfect for team roping."

On Sunny, Billings has been a champion in team roping with the New Mexico Businessmen's Team Roping Association. Friends come over and practice most afternoons in the corral Billings built on his property off Doña Ana Road in Las Cruces.

Since the late 1980s, Billings, an NMSU graduate with a degree in agricultural education, has bought at least nine horses at the NMSU horse auction, held each spring at the Horse Center in Mesilla Park. "I've bought and sold several. I get them started and then I sell them. It's kind of a hobby," he says.

"NMSU has a good program. I've been really impressed with Dr. Joe Armstrong and the quality of the mares and stallions that he's put together."

While Sunny is into team roping, Joyce has had quite a career in reining and working cow horse competition, since her purchase in 1992 by another NMSU graduate, Linda Mars.

Trained by Josh Armstrong of La Mesa, Joyce is a world champion reiner and working cow horse in the American Buckskin Association. In addition, she placed in the All-American Quarter Horse Congress, the largest horse show in the United States, held in Columbus, Ohio.

"She's bred well, balanced well and has a trainable mind," Armstrong says. "And she's a real people horse."

Joyce is sired by King Correon, one of NMSU's three prize stallions. After retiring this year, Joyce was bred to Hollywood Dun It, the leading sire of reining horses. Her foal is due in March 1999.

"We're expecting another one that can do what Joyce can do," Armstrong says.


Tolani Francisco Healthy as a horse?

In 28 states, including New Mexico, 1998 is the year of the horse.

"Each year the National Animal Health Monitoring System targets a different species for a national survey," says Tolani Francisco, a veterinarian with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service in Albuquerque.

"This year, it's Equine '98, and the objective is to provide baseline information about equine health across the nation."

People who own three or more horses were randomly chosen to participate in this National Animal Statistics Survey.

Francisco says the voluntary survey is used to gather information about the type and use of the equine population in each state, the prevalence of infectious diseases among the population and health-related management practices followed by horse owners.

Those who fill out the survey are then asked if they'd like to participate in a more in-depth study that includes taking blood and fecal samples and nasal swabs from the horses.

"This will give us an indication about what's going on with equine health across the nation," Francisco explains. "We can also compare how equine producers in New Mexico manage their horses with other producers throughout the U.S."

Francisco says contacting the 35 equine producers in the state who filled out the original survey and then doing the biological testing will take about one year.

For the first time, the National Animal Statistics Survey will include information about animals found on Indian lands. That's because Onesimo (O.A.) Martinez, a Cooperative Extension Service associate with NMSU's Jicarilla Apache project, has been working with Francisco to survey horse owners on the Jicarilla Reservation in northern New Mexico.

Martinez teamed up with the Jicarilla Department of Agriculture to serve as a liaison between the tribe and the USDA. "We assisted in talking with the tribal council about the project," he says. "We also contacted the horse owners and helped them sort through the questionnaires."

In the end, horse owners from the Jicarilla made up 11 of the state's 35 respondents.

If you would like to view more information regarding horses, please visit our "Hoof beats at NMSU" site.