Page 17 - New Mexico Summer 2022

Doc (bottom right) with his siblings Donald, Sherman, Harold, Millard, Colleen, Bethine & Arlene, and parents Ella and Herman.
his parents. Leonard made sure the ride was memorable and more.
“I didn’t know it, but he had made some (dirt) ramps out on the field,” recalls Joanne. “I got on that motorcycle, and I’d never been so scared in my life. His mother found out what he’d done, and she got on him.”
“She (Joanne) didn’t have a clue,” says Leonard. “She wasn’t too excited about getting on it (motorcycle). Not at all.”
There were plenty of Blachs on hand to meet Joanne and she got an inspiring look at what growing up in a big family was all about.
“My life with Leonard has taught me the joy of having siblings and sharing within a big family,” she said. “I grew up an
only child who got all the attention. After I married him, I soon found out I had to put it somewhere else.”
They got married on June 23, 1957. She had a teaching degree, and he was going to vet school. For the next three years she was
the sole bread winner. She taught History and English in grades first through 12 in Timnath, Colorado, a rural community about 15 miles from Fort Collins. The high school’s
senior class consisted of 12 students.
“I taught all 12 grades,” she said. “I was
fresh out of school and so naive. I didn’t know what I was getting into, but it was the best thing I ever did because I really loved it.”
Her salary, she thinks, was about $300 a month. If they ran short on groceries, Leonard’s folks helped out.
“It’s amazing how we got through that (time),” says Dr. Blach. “Her teacher’s salary wasn’t very big. So, my dad always supplied us with meat when we went back home.”
Their first child, Serena, was born during that time.
Dr. Blach graduated from vet school in 1960. They moved to Yuma, where Blach began his veterinary career. After a year, they moved
to Santa Fe where Doc opened up the Santa
Fe Equine Center. He was recruited to New Mexico by Charlie Lockridge, a horse owner who owned some studs and ran a small breeding farm in Pena Blanca, south of Santa Fe.
Between his clients at the equine center and the work he was getting from Lockridge, Doc’s business was going strong. Plus, the Downs at Santa Fe racetrack had opened and that brought in more clients for the young vet.
As Dr. Blach’s workload grew, so did his reputation. For one thing, he was the only
vet in New Mexico performing arthroscopic surgery on horses, a procedure he had learned at CSU. His work was now being recognized far beyond Santa Fe and inevitably one of the biggest names in Quarter Horse racing history came calling.
Dr. Blach and Harriett Peckham with Go Man Go.
In a previous story in this magazine several years ago, Doc recalled in detail the day Harriett Peckham came into his life. She and friend Sarah Henderson, also a big-time Texas horse owner, traveled to Pena Blanca to meet Blach.
“I was palpating mares,” said Blach. “Two well-dressed ladies get out of a Cadillac with
a Texas license. When they get closer, I see they’ve got diamond rings on them bigger than my Kentucky Derby ring. They just stood there leaning on the fence looking at me.”
NMHB File Photo
Ms. Peckham told Doc she was going to build a breeding and stud farm in Roswell. She owned the controlling interest in the great stud Go Man Go and planned to move him to her new farm. She needed a vet to be part of her Buena Suerte Ranch and he had come highly recommended.
The offer was too good to pass up.
“I had some nice horses (at Pena Blanca), but I didn’t have a Go Man Go,” said Blach.
The family moved to Roswell and Dr. Blach worked with Buena Suerte until the
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