Page 58 - Winter 2020

CANDY EZZELL-
Strong-Willed And Fearless-To A Point By Pete Herrera
The critter was in obvious distress and very likely under the influence of rabies.
He needed to be put out of its misery, but there were other issues in play the day ranch owner Candy Ezzell and ranch hand Heath Metcalf ran into the sick and disoriented skunk.
Candy and Heath were on their way to repair some cow pens when they spotted the skunk. Instinctively she knew it wasn’t a good situation.
“When a skunk runs into things, that’s a rabid skunk,” says Ezzell, recalling the incident about 15 years ago.
Her first concern was for her dogs. Not wanting them to go after the skunk, she told Heath to put them back in her pickup truck. When it became obvious the skunk wouldn’t or couldn’t leave, she asked Heath to get a gun. By the time Heath came back with the weapon, the skunk had moved inside a squeeze chute.
“We had tried everything to get the skunk out and he wouldn’t do it,” recalls Candy.
Candy figured if Heath shot the skunk
in the squeeze chute--which is used to brand cattle--the resulting stink would linger for quite a while and the calves and cows would want
no part of getting into the chute. Her solution: Rope the skunk and yank him out of the chute.
“I told Heath, I’m going to build me a little rope and I’m going to rope that sucker.” Once I get him roped, I’m going to yank him out of there and you’re going to shoot him. That’s exactly what we did,” said Candy.
She used some baling twine for the makeshift rope, got close enough and in one motion threw the rope’s noose onto the skunk and slung him out of the squeeze chute and far enough away so Heath could finish him off.
Problem solving pretty much has to be part of your DNA when you’re walking in Candy’s boots. Those boots cover a lot of territory, from her and husband Calder’s nearly 18,000- acre ranch in southeast New Mexico to the halls of the roundhouse in Santa Fe.
As one of the state’s staunchest advocates for horse racing in New Mexico, she and fellow lawmaker Sen. Mary Kay Papen have for years worked across the aisle in Santa Fe to sponsor and successfully get legislation approved that has greatly benefitted the state’s horse racing industry.
Ezzell, a Republican, has represented Chaves County’s District 58 since 2005 and won re-election in an unopposed race in November.
Papen, a Democrat and President Pro Tem of the Senate who lost to her Democratic opponent in the primary in June, will have served in the Senate for 20 years when she completes her term in January.
At a time when bipartisanship can seem like an endangered element of government, Ezzell and Papen were able to work together for the common good of horse racing and other issues, regardless of their individual political philosophies.
“I love her, she’s like my daughter,” says the 88-year-old Papen of Candy, who will turn 67 on Thanksgiving Day. “I don’t know of any of the legislators up there (Santa Fe) that I admire more than Candy Ezzell.”
The admiration is mutual.
“I call her mom,” says Ezzell. “Her daughter Susan (Vescovo) and I were born the same day, same year, a couple of hours apart.”
Candy said her admiration of Papen and her work in the Legislature was immediate.
“She was very self-assured, people listened whenever she talked,” says Candy. “She was very kind and she was wasn’t so set on being a Democrat that she didn’t do the right thing for all of New Mexico.”
Self-assured and up front is how Norma Alvarez, the well-respected horse owner, breeder and board member for the New Mexico Horse Breeders Association describes Ezzell.
“She’s really unafraid,” says Alvarez. “She’s very honest and forthright. What you see is what you get.”
Protecting the integrity of horse racing in the state and particularly the welfare of horses has been a priority for both Papen and Ezzell. Candy says her most important contribution was sponsoring the bill under which the New Mexico Racing Commission adopted the guidelines and regulations
of the Association of Racing
Commissioners International.
“I call her mom,” says Ezzell. “Her daughter Susan (Vescovo) and I were born the same day, same year, a couple of hours apart.”
56 New Mexico Horse Breeder