In early 2015, santafe.com published a profile of Dr. Stacie Boswell as she established an equine veterinary practice in northern New Mexico. Written before her move to Montana, it remains one of the fullest tellings of her origin story — her deep New Mexico roots, the path from a genetics degree to equine surgery, and her conviction that she is a horsewoman first. It is reproduced here in part; the original is preserved by the Internet Archive.
New Equine Veterinary Practice for Northern New Mexico
santafe.com, 2015 — a profile of Dr. Stacie Boswell
Five generations in New Mexico
Stacie’s family came to New Mexico five generations ago. In the 1800s, her ancestors were missionaries to the Jemez people; some were born on the Jemez lands and later built the Jemez Springs Presbyterian Church, where Stacie was baptized. In the early 1900s the family homesteaded in the Jemez, and that land remains in the family today. Stacie and Sid were married at Pecos National Historic Monument.
A horsewoman first
Stacie was introduced to horses in high school and immediately bitten by the horse bug. After graduating from Texas A&M with a B.S. in genetics, she worked for a hospital lab doing genetic typing for organ and bone marrow transplants. After marrying Sid, she took a job in a Virginia veterinary practice that let her keep riding.
“I consider myself a horsewoman first, and being a veterinarian grew out of that passion.”
A veterinarian in Virginia mentored her and wrote the reference letter that helped her into the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine. She followed veterinary school with a year-long equine internship at the veterinary teaching hospital in North Carolina, then a year of surgical experience and orthopedic research at Cornell, and finally a three-year Large Animal Surgery Residency at the University of Tennessee — scrubbing in on surgeries for race horses and Budweiser Clydesdales. Though her focus is horses, she also works with llamas, alpacas, sheep, goats, and camels.
“I am extremely detail oriented, so I get satisfaction fitting a laceration back together quite perfectly, and making sure that every suture I place is as perfect as I can make it. I also really enjoy the challenges of lameness, and have been watching horses from that perspective for the last 10 years.”
At the time of the profile, Stacie was preparing to sit the American College of Veterinary Surgeons large animal board examination (she became a Diplomate in 2014) and practiced at Western Trails Veterinary Hospital in Edgewood, New Mexico. She and Sid would later settle in Montana.
The original profile is preserved by the Internet Archive.