Page 48 - NMHBASummer2019

A MOMENT IN TIME
New Mexico Racing History
From the May/June 1999 New Mexico Horse Breeder Magazine
For New Mexico horsemen like Terry and Nan Lane, owners of Pinon Farm located just off Highway 116 in Belen, a little suc- cess goes a long way. The Lanes started
out in the horse business as just a hobby,
but now that New Mexico is becoming
one of the country’s new hot spots to race, their hobby has become a full time opera- tion. The Lanes have been involved in the breeding business for several years. Their Quarter Horse stallions are A Smooth Bug (Jet Smooth-Lady Afton Bug), who has
been a prominent sire in New Mexico for some time, and Keeta Hancock (Handyman Hancock-Keeta Pierotte), who is one of the few descendants of Hancock left in the coun- try. They have a pasture full of good mares now and they raise a few mules, as well.
Terry Lane has been a truck driver for ABF for the last five years. His wife, Nan, just retired from twenty years as a cattle inspector, and is now running the farm full time. “It just got
to where I hated being away from home,” said Nan. “When you have a bunch of nice horses on your place, you hate to leave them. And work never seems to end.”
the Lanes had the highest selling yearling at the Ruidoso Thoroughbred Yearling
Sale when their homebred Choking Values, a Full Choke colt out of their Tejano mare Super Set, sold for $43,000. “It was a thrill,” said Terry. “The first sale colt we sold a few years ago brought $2,500, the next year we sold one for $3,500, then we sold one for $5,000. The colt last year was nice and we were thrilled he brought what he did. We used that money to do some improvements on the place and we bought a couple of more mares.”
The Lanes have a few more horses consigned this year to the Ruidoso Sales. One of them is
a half-sister to last year’s high seller, who is by
the Texas Thoroughbred Hadif, and they have a Capote’s Promise yearling filly out of the Bold Ego mare, Not So Innocent. Charlie and Phyllis Meier of Belen a Late To Bed colt out of their Bold Ego mare Pats Ego with the Lanes being prepped for the Ruidoso Select Quarter Horse Sale.
The Lanes also purchased a new 4-Star six- horse slant trailer. Terry said that come August, he will be doing some horse hauling. “I just figured with all the new money from the slots and all the newly generated interest from all
xico-bred M M Me
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over the country about the New M
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program, that this would be the p
fect time
for us to get into the horse busin es
ull-time,”
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he said. “Nan can hold this place
e d
ow
wn when
he slack when I’m home. And hopefully by next year we’ll have our breeding barn finished, which
will have a lab and the works. We have waited
a long time just like everybody else and we are looking forward to what’s in store for the racing in this state. It only makes things seem more worthwhile. The prices these New Mexico- breds are going to bring this year at the sales are going to surprise a lot of people. Next year it will be even better.”
One thing for sure is the optimism the Lanes’ have is now their most noticeable trait and it seems to be contagious. They are doing something they love to do and have weathered the bad times New Mexico racing has faced the last few years. To see New Mexico horsemen looking forward to a great future in racing is something we haven’t seen for a while. It seems these days, like the smiles, just keep getting bigger when the conversation of racing in New Mexico arises.
I’m on the road, and I can pick u
u up
t th
46 New Mexico Horse Breeder
It’s Not Just A
Hobby Anymore ...
Story & Photos by Robert Edwards