Page 46 - May 2021

Living Their Dreams by Diane Rice
New Mexico Breeders Norma & Dosi Alvarez
Ifyou could live your childhood dreams, what Dosi, 28, loves to gallop horses for Seth; Seth, Her dad bought a place in the country so
would you be doing now? For Anthony, New Mexico breeders Norma and Ramon “Dosi” Alvarez, the dream includes raising and racing outstanding Quarter Horse runners along with carrying on a family legacy of farm- ing the land that Dosi’s grandfather cleared.
Together, Norma and Dosi nurture each other’s ventures with a mixture of love, humor, hard work, mutual goals and family support.
The family operations also include Norma’s son — also the Alvarez’s trainer, Seth Ferguson — and the couple’s son, whose real name is Dosi and who works the farming operation with the elder Dosi.
Their Lazy A horse farm and Alvarez Farms, which for the last 28 years has grown 1100
acres of certified organic crops including cotton, pecans, beardless wheat and alfalfa, engulf most of the hours in each day. Yet the division of labor allows each member of the family an outlet to experience a break from their “real jobs.” The elder Dosi attends races for recreation; young
31, helps Norma with foalings; and Norma? Well, Norma, like most moms, derives her joy from the variety of being involved with her family in all their varied endeavors.
THEIR START
The elder Dosi’s father, Ramon, carried on his father’s farming operation in Anthony, and Dosi’s mother, Inez, taught school. Dosi always had horses on the farm, and he and his friends liked going to the races.
Norma was born in Seattle, Washington, where her dad, Norman Beyers, served in the Navy and went to school. It was there that he met and married her mom, Sally. When Norma was just a baby, the young family moved to El Paso where Norman worked as a scientist at White Sands Missile Range while Sally taught school.
As a child, Norma says she didn’t have dolls, just little horse figurines. “I just loved horses!” she says.
naturally, that’s where her horse involvement began. “I did gymkhana in high school;
I loved barrel racing and was always very interested in racehorses,” she says. “I didn’t like showing horses as much; it was too subjective. I liked the finite result so I gravitated to that and then started wondering how I could have a career in horses.”
She started eyeing the yearling sales and when she was 18, she started studying in earnest. “I went to any sale I could and got the catalogs,” she says.
Dosi and Norma’s mutual love for horses formed the basis for a match made in Heaven, but although Norma and Dosi met during high school when Dosi worked as a lifeguard at the school’s swimming pool, they didn’t get together until much later.
Before they renewed their acquaintance, Norma earned two associate degrees in business at New Mexico State University, and Dosi earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science, also at NMSU.
44 SPEEDHORSE May 2021
Dosi and Norma with sons Dosi Alvarez Jr. and Seth Ferguson, who is also their trainer.