Meet the Team
Waikato Veterinary Equine Centre is led by a highly skilled and experienced team of equine veterinarians, assisted by a team of qualified equine veterinary nurses.
Dr Douglas BlackBVMS, MANZCVS
A Director of Waikato Equine Veterinary Centre (A division of Hamilton Veterinary Services) since 1992. Doug has 25 years of sales work experience in both NZ and Australia, complemented by working day in and day out with top race horses and stables in NZ. Doug has been involved in the purchase of some of the best horses to race in NZ, in the last 15 years and he specialises in the performance issues of young thoroughbreds.
Douglas graduated from Glasgow University Veterinary School in 1983. He spent his first two years in mixed practice in North Yorkshire. After six months’ locum work around London in 1985, he spent 12 months in equine practice in Eastern Australia. Doug arrived in NZ in 1986 to join Hamilton Veterinary Services and has worked at the practice ever since. He became a partner in 1992, and shortly after, completed his exams for membership of the New Zealand and Australian College of Veterinary Scientists. His professional interests include lameness and poor performance in young racing thoroughbreds, as part of generalised track work, as well as breeding and yearling sales work. Outside of his professional life he enjoys travel, golf, fine wine and hopes to pursue fly fishing as he finds more time on his hands.
Dr Noel PowerMVB
Noel qualified as a veterinary surgeon in Dublin and worked in mixed practice in North Ireland before moving to New Zealand and working at a Te Awamutu dairy and equine practice. He then spent five years in the UK working solely with horses, including three years at an equine surgical referral centre, before returning to New Zealand in 2003 to join Hamilton Veterinary Services. His areas of interest include medicine, lameness, dentistry and reproduction, and he has a particular interest in the horse's foot.
Noel enjoys the great outdoors and takes every and any opportunity to fish and hunt. He's a DIY and gardening enthusiast.
Dr Alec JorgensenBVSc, Cert EP, Dipl ABVP Eq
With a background of residency training in equine sports medicine and lameness in the USA, and a Diplomate of the American Board of Veterinary Practitioners Equine Specialty; Alec joined Waikato Equine Veterinary Centre (A division of Hamilton Veterinary Services) in 2005. Since then he has had principle responsibility for Sales horses within the practice. With an emphasis on quality, consistency and integrity; few veterinarians in Australasia would annually take, review and report on, as many weanling and yearling radiographs as Alec.
See LessRead MoreSee MoreDr Greg QuinnBVSc, Cert ES, Dipl ECVS
A registered Specialist and European Boarded Diplomate in Equine Surgery; Greg joined Waikato Equine Veterinary Centre (A division of Hamilton Veterinary Services) in 2011. His caseload is principally composed of surgical and non-surgical orthopedic and upper airway issues of the elite thoroughbred, coupled with his strong academic background, this adds a vital component of the team.
See LessRead MoreSee MoreDr Kate Dingemans BVsc
Originally from Cambridge, Kate graduated from Massey University in 1992. After two years of mixed practice in the Rangitikei, she headed to the UK to be based in Lambourn for several years, before undertaking an internship at Rossdale and Partners, Newmarket. After marrying Bruno and starting a family, they spent a further two years in Shropshire before heading back to NZ permanently in 2002. Kate started working part-time in 2005 and has worked solely as anesthetist since the Equine Hospital opened in 2007. She began working for WEVC as anesthetist in July 2013.
See LessRead MoreSee MoreDr Jack O’BrienBVSc, MRCVS
Jack graduated from Massey University in late 2012. He spent 12 months at Randwick Equine Centre in Sydney completing an internship before returning to NZ and working for a short spell in the lower North Island. Most recently he has spent 18 months in equine practice in the lower Auckland area.
Jack has an active and very keen passion in the NZ Thoroughbred racing and breeding industry, having a long-standing association through his parents and grandparents, and on any given Saturday you will almost always find him near something broadcasting Trackside. If not at the lake, out on the boat! He is very excited to be joining the team at WEVC and has a special interest in racetrack and performance horse practice especially lameness, performance medicine and diagnostic imaging.
You may also meet his Pug 'Nala' who accompanies him on most days!
Dr Ronan CostelloMVB, CAC
Having worked with performance horses in the USA and Ireland before moving to New Zealand in 2005, Ronan has an extensive knowledge in thoroughbred racing and sales. He has been attending the yearling sales in Karaka and Australia for the past 10 years. Ronan is a member of the NZB Endoscopy panel, working at both the ready to run sales and the national yearling sales. Attending weanling, yearling and breeze up sales, allows him the opportunity to advise on both pinhooking and race horse purchases. Ronan routinely performs pre-purchase examinations for Hong Kong, Australia, Singapore and other racing jurisdictions.
See LessRead MoreSee MoreDr Alex LeanderBVSc, MPhil
Alex has been with the HVS Equine Team since 2015. She graduated from Massey end of 2009 before spending a couple of years in small animal practice in Wellington. She moved to the Waikato in 2011 and did a one year equine medicine and anaesthesia internship program at Matamata Vets Equine. Then she worked with Dr Lee Morris at EquiBreed NZ Ltd, assisting on several research projects and learning advanced reproductive technologies. One of the highlights during this time was to help organising the International Symposium of Equine Reproduction in 2014, where 300 of the worlds’ leading researchers in equine reproduction attended.
Alex main interest are; reproduction, nutrition, research and regenerative medicine. She’s currently working part time as well as doing an MPhil degree, where she’s investigating different sources of stem cells as treatment for lameness conditions in horses. This project is a collaboration between The University of Waikato, EquiBreed NZ Ltd and The New Zealand Equine Research Foundation.
In her spare time Alex also runs her own business Platinum Performance NZ. She’s a keen member of the Waikato Hunt and is very excited about starting a small scale (N=1) warmblood breeding operation this season. Originally from Sweden she loves snow skiing and most winter weekends she can be found teaching her children ski on the slopes of Mount Ruapehu.
Dr MF Bertram BVSc
Graduated from Massey University 1976 with a BVSc. Murray started working for HVS in September 1976, doing a mix of small and large animal medicine before focussing on equine and deer. Murray became a partner in 1984 until 2009 when he decided to semi-retire. He keeps his hand in, returning each year to work over the stud season and do a small number of deer work at Waikato Equine Veterinary Centre (A Division of Hamilton Veterinary Services).
Murray was involved in the building of the new hospital in 1987 at Te Rapa, and has seen many changes within the practice and industry.
In his spare time, Murray is an avid tramper and is walking his way around the South Island. He also spends 6 months of the year on the Gold Coast where he and his wife Iona have purchased a house.
Dr Emily SherlockBVetMed MRCVS
Dr Emily Sherlock re-joined the WEVC team in early 2018 permanently. Born and raised in England, growing up with pony club, eventing and even a spot of polo. She graduated from the Royal Veterinary College, London in 2013.
After graduation, Emily worked in a mixed practice for six months. This was followed by an opportunity to work on a commercial thoroughbred stud farm in Japan for a year. This introduction to the hand’s on world of thoroughbred breeding sparked an interest in reproductive work and foal management.
At the conclusion of this contract, Emily returned to the UK to commence an 18 month internship at the Liphook Equine Hospital, one of the largest specialist equine veterinary practices in the UK. During this time there she gained invaluable experience in the fields of sport horse lameness diagnostics.
Following the different hemisphere summers seemed a great perk of veterinary work and what has followed is continuation of summers. A season in Australia on a polo farm, using AI and embryo transfer techniques then back to the UK for six months general equine practice.
In 2017 Emily came to New Zealand for the Southern Hemisphere breeding season, staying on and joining the team at WEVC. She returned to UK in April for the Northern Hemisphere season and rejoined the WEVC team in August.
Emily special areas of interest are lameness diagnostics and breeding.
Outside of work she loves eventing her own horse, exploring and adventures. She is well known to set herself challenges, whether it be a triathlon, half marathon or randomly the National Rowing championships- Emily is one talented lady! She also has amazing artistic skills with drawing and painting animals.
Dr Laurinda OliverBSc, BVSc, MS, DiplACVS
Laurinda graduated from Massey University in 2001 and took an Internship at Randwick Equine Hospital in Sydney, Australia. Following this she worked at Hamilton Vet Services for 4 years before moving to the USA to pursue specialised training in Large Animal Surgery. After 15 years in the USA Laurinda and her family decided to move back to NZ and rejoin the practice as specialist in equine surgery. Laurinda has evented to 2-star level, ridden track work, tried polo and western riding and has yet to find an equine sport she doesn’t enjoy. When not at work she enjoys spending time wake surfing at Lake Taupo, snow skiing and spending time with her family.
See LessRead MoreSee MoreDr Hannah Bowen BVSc CertAVP (equine medicine) MRCVS
Originally from the UK, Hannah qualified as a veterinary surgeon from the University of Bristol and worked in mixed animal and then first opinion equine practice before undertaking an 18-month internship at the Liphook Equine Hospital. Here she gained experience and training in anesthesia, equine medicine and lameness diagnostics working alongside recognised equine veterinary specialists on a predominately pleasure and sports horse caseload. She complimented this by following on with a six month breeding season internship at Goulburn Valley Equine Hospital in Victoria. This was a fantastic opportunity to continue to develop skills and experience working with predominantly thoroughbred and standardbred horses. She was involved with all areas of Vet work in this busy practice including routine broodmare management, advanced breeding technologies, stud farm medicine, anesthesia, intensive neonatal medicine and critical care.
After traveling through Australia and New Zealand for three months she decided the to-do & to-see lists were long enough to warrant a permanent move to NZ in 2010. She worked at Matamata Veterinary Services Equine Clinic where she continued to develop her particular interests in equine internal medicine and anesthesia, completing her RCVS Certificate in advanced veterinary practice (equine medicine) in 2014.
When Hannah is not caring for your horses she enjoys looking after and spending time with her family, keeping active so she can keep up with her two busy sons and tramping in our beautiful country.
Keana McCosh BVMS, MRCVS
Joined the team in April 2021. Born and raised in Hong Kong, she developed a love for horses and equestrian sports from a young age. Whilst at university, she traveled to Australia and America to represent the Hong Kong Pony Club at two inter pacific exchanges. She graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 2018 and moved to New Zealand to complete an equine internship. Following this, she moved back home to work with the racing vet team at the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
Keana loves all aspects of equine veterinary work however has a special interest in lameness, sports medicine and rehabilitation.
Keana is a bit of a globe trotter and is excited to back exploring the NZ backyard. She is a keen sportswoman often out riding, running or passionately following the rugby!