Page 23 - NMHBA Spring 2022

Finally, the good fortune of having a paternally patient, infinitely knowledgeable mentor living right down the road.
And what better place for all this to take place than in Roswell, New Mexico. Yes, this town on the eastern plains of the state that for decades has happily tapped into the notoriety that comes with being the poster city for all things UFO.
Roswell is one of those must visit places in any cross-country road trip through America. As the story goes, it was on a ranch just west
of town that an alien spaceship crashed in June or July of 1947. The debate over the facts or fiction of the incident has gone on and on, but there’s no argument over how that bit of history has impacted the city.
There’s a museum full of--if not convincing, at least food for thought--information devoted to the crash. There’s an annual festival to commemorate what’s become known as the Roswell incident. And where else in America can you go down main street and run into so many alien-depicting figures. Heck, alien faces even cover the city’s street lamps.
So, you might say Roswell was the perfect place for Susan Hunter to pull off what might be considered a longshot career move.
But I digress.
Susan and her brother Leslie grew up in the West Texas town of Big Spring. Their dad, Weldon, repaired water wells and their mom, Fay, kept the books.
Susan started barrel racing when she was nine and competed until she was 21. After graduating from high school in 1971, Susan enrolled at Lubbock Christian College. Her higher education experience lasted a year.
“I got married. In 1971, that’s why you got sent to college, to find a fine Christian young man to marry. Well, that didn’t work out,” says Susan, recalling that part of her past with a laugh.
Her barrel racing days gave way to music, the other passion in her life.
“Horses and music are all I’ve ever been about,” she says.
Music became the focus of her life after she formed the band, Limited Edition, in 1985. Over the next
10 or so years, the
band was almost constantly on the
road playing in
dance halls throughout Texas and New Mexico.
“We were on the road 50 weeks out of the year,” said Susan. “We would come home for one week in the summer and one week at Christmas. That was it.”
The band, with four or five members, played a variety of music from ‘50s doo-wop to a heavy dose of country western. All the members sang, and all sang harmony. Susan played the keyboard and steel guitar.
It was the band that brought Susan to Roswell for the first time. One of their favorite spots to play was at a dance hall in town called Big Scooters. And when the time came to leave the band, Susan and her husband Kerry Hunter decided Roswell would be a good place to live.
“It had kind of become a home, so I just decided to stay here.”
Susan and Kerry, who passed away last year, bought property in another part of Roswell and later moved from there and bought the initial 56 acres where HunterCreek Farms is located. The property at one time had been owned
by Dr. Leonard Blach, the highly regarded veterinarian and horse owner. It was Blach who encouraged Susan to buy it.
“At the point
we were going to buy this place,
I didn’t know any of this existed,” she said. “I had been to three horse races in my entire life and that was back in the ‘70s. I was not involved in racing and never involved in breeding.”
Susan had no premeditated plan to turn the farm into what it is today. Her initial focus was on turning the land into some type of money- making operation. Again, Blach, whose horse farm is located about a mile away, played a big role in that decision.
“I needed someone to help me foaling out mares and a place to board some mares,” said Blach. “She loved her (barrel racing) horses and the way she took care of them. But this would be an all-new venture for her.”
To help her get started, Blach took more than two dozen mares to Susan, so she could start learning how to care for them.
“I assisted her with all the mares that were foaling,” said Blach. “I was there for all the births. She’d observe and when they (mares) got ready to foal, she’d call me. I attended every one of those for probably a year or more until she caught on.”
Rrelentless winning the John Deere Ruidoso Downs Championship Challenge.
SPRING 2022 21
Susan with her band Limited Edition.
Photo Provided
Ruidoso Downs