Life, food, events, and community in Albuquerque, NM
Neighborhood Change in the North Valley
I’ve always been attracted to the places in Albuquerque that are unique to this city. Unlike a lot of other cities, we have neighborhoods here where the poor folks, the middle class, and the rich live side by side. Neighborhoods with big houses and trailer parks. Neighborhoods that mix agricultural use with housing. That’s why I was thrilled when my wife and I bought a place in West Old Town 17 years ago. We got almost an acre, on the ditch (with water rights), with stables.
There were about four places with large animals on Mountain Road at the time. Luther Garcia was running cattle on the old dairy property behind our house, a guy named Felipe had pigs, goats and sheep on the corner of Montoya, and the folks in the house with the mural had chickens, roosters, peacocks, and sometimes goats.
We didn’t own any livestock, but we had a friend with horses who was looking for a place closer to her house. Eventually she bought horse property and moved out of the city, but she referred a guy named Vidal to us who was looking for a place close by for his horses. He’s been here since 2000.
Like most of the North Valley, though, West Old Town is changing. The big property where the dairy used to be is now a gated community. The trailer parks are gone, also replaced by gated communities. We’re the last ones left on Mountain Road with livestock. And some of the neighbors are complaining.
There is no doubt that horses are smelly. And they attract flies. We do what we can. We clean the stalls and spread the manure in the pasture. We put up flytraps. We bring in fly predators. Still, the horses do generate odors and flies. But the horses were here before the neighbors moved in.
Now I feel like my own tax dollars are being used against me. Animal control has been out here six or eight times in the last four months, Zoning twice, and the Livestock Board once. We had four horses and three goats, but faced with the zoning requirements we cut back to the legal limit of three horses and one goat (so the second Zoning visit found us in compliance). Most of the Animal Control officers have found no problems, although the last one thinks that one horse’s hooves need to be trimmed and that the rescue horse who we’ve been working with should be euthanized. I don’t know enough about horses to question his judgment on the hooves, but I do disagree about the rescue horse (who is seen regularly by a veterinarian).
I know I’m fighting a loosing battle here. I’m almost 60, and the horse owner is 70. Tarde o temprano, one of us will get to the point where it’s too much work to care for the horses or do the irrigating. Then, I guess, I’ll sell the land and someone will put up a couple of houses. Mountain Road will be, like almost every other street in Albuquerque, a street with houses and no livestock. Tarde
There were about four places with large animals on Mountain Road at the time. Luther Garcia was running cattle on the old dairy property behind our house, a guy named Felipe had pigs, goats and sheep on the corner of Montoya, and the folks in the house with the mural had chickens, roosters, peacocks, and sometimes goats.
We didn’t own any livestock, but we had a friend with horses who was looking for a place closer to her house. Eventually she bought horse property and moved out of the city, but she referred a guy named Vidal to us who was looking for a place close by for his horses. He’s been here since 2000.
Like most of the North Valley, though, West Old Town is changing. The big property where the dairy used to be is now a gated community. The trailer parks are gone, also replaced by gated communities. We’re the last ones left on Mountain Road with livestock. And some of the neighbors are complaining.
There is no doubt that horses are smelly. And they attract flies. We do what we can. We clean the stalls and spread the manure in the pasture. We put up flytraps. We bring in fly predators. Still, the horses do generate odors and flies. But the horses were here before the neighbors moved in.
Now I feel like my own tax dollars are being used against me. Animal control has been out here six or eight times in the last four months, Zoning twice, and the Livestock Board once. We had four horses and three goats, but faced with the zoning requirements we cut back to the legal limit of three horses and one goat (so the second Zoning visit found us in compliance). Most of the Animal Control officers have found no problems, although the last one thinks that one horse’s hooves need to be trimmed and that the rescue horse who we’ve been working with should be euthanized. I don’t know enough about horses to question his judgment on the hooves, but I do disagree about the rescue horse (who is seen regularly by a veterinarian).
I know I’m fighting a loosing battle here. I’m almost 60, and the horse owner is 70. Tarde o temprano, one of us will get to the point where it’s too much work to care for the horses or do the irrigating. Then, I guess, I’ll sell the land and someone will put up a couple of houses. Mountain Road will be, like almost every other street in Albuquerque, a street with houses and no livestock. Tarde
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kenny on -
It's a shame, isn't it?
I've watched the same thing happen in other places around town. Places where we used to run in the open fields and shoot rabbits are now all built up and those places are gone forever.
The dictionary term for this is called "progress". I'm not sure that's the correct term though. You can delay the progress for a little while but at some point you have to look at the writing on the wall and accept that your little piece of heaven is smack dab in the middle of hell. Eventually it becomes time to move on, sometimes physically, sometimes just mentally.
Good luck.
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Permalink Reply by abqmom on -
this makes me very sad! I would rather see horses and farm land than another sterile subdivision or ugly unnecessary strip mall!
I hate progress.
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Permalink Reply by JeSais on
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...personally I love the smell of horses, and hay and manure. smells way better than car exhaust and lawn chemicals.
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Permalink Reply by mombat on -
Part of the charm of the valley has always been the horse who visits over the fence, the goat who amuses people with jumps and snorts, assorted poultry and other critters. Unless the area is really badly maintained the flies are not that bad and the animals are the trade off.
Generally, the people who have animals are also the people maintaining the ditches and the big green spaces that people claim to enjoy.
Check out the Agriculture section at the MRCOG. Maybe you can find some who'd like to help out.
Good Luck
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Permalink Reply by Juan on -
Those damn people in the subdivision need to calm down and realize where they moved. They should have moved out to the Westside or Rio Rancho if they wanted nothing but concrete and strip malls. I hope you find a remedy to your problem, because you are helping to preserve a part of NM culture that many folks outside of urban NM don't get to see. I grew up farming and with ranchers as uncles, so I definitely feel what you are doing has great value.
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Permalink Reply by Cottonwood on -
Why must every thread eventually get around to bashing the west?
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Permalink Reply by ramon t on -
Yes, you should cross the river once in awhile. There is a ton of horses and goats west of the river starting from the south valley all the way through corrales.
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Permalink Reply by Juan on
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Sorry I was referring to what I call the Westside, which essentially is an extension of Rio Rancho. I lived in that part of the Westside for a year and am so happy I left. I've never referred to the South Valley as the Westside and thus why my assumption was such.
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Permalink Reply by ramon t on
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Westside != The Valley
The Westide IN ('The Valley on Westside of Rio Grande', 'Corrales', 'South Valley', 'Five Points', 'Rio Rancho',.....)
Of course none of that is as cool as Nob Hill, NE Heights, SE Heights...ect....
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Permalink Reply by Juan on
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Come on now Ramon, I was trying to explain myself here not start an argument about what's cooler. As I noted, I grew up country so my preference are places that are more natural like the Valley, etc. I wouldn't say they're as "cool" as downtown, Nob Hill, or the campus area, but that's a good thing, I wouldn't want them all chic and cool. Yet again, I must not be as old school as you since I still don't consider the Westside as part of the South Valley, but hey that's just me.
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