All Creatures Great and Small: Young Veterinarian Fulfills Childhood Vow to Serve Rural New Mexico

EDGEWOOD, N.M. — When Anne Everett was 13 years old, she stood helplessly next to a sick horse on her family’s rural property, unable to find a veterinarian willing or able to make the long drive out. Too young to haul a trailer herself, she watched the clock tick down in agonizing isolation.

That afternoon on the high plains of central New Mexico sparked a vow.

“From that moment on, I decided I wanted to help people get vet care where they needed it—which is especially out here,” Everett said.

More than a decade later, she has returned to fulfill that childhood promise.

Fresh off graduating in May from Texas Tech University’s School of Veterinary Medicine, Dr. Anne Everett could have easily set up shop in affluent suburban hubs like Dallas, where demand is steady and clinic amenities are plentiful. Instead, the 2018 Estancia High School alumna packed her truck, loaded up her medical kits and her short-legged rescue dog, Frida, and came straight back to the East Mountains.

Across vast stretches of rural New Mexico, veterinary shortages have left livestock owners and pet owners in precarious positions. Covering Torrance, Bernalillo, and Santa Fe counties, Everett is currently operating as a fully mobile practice, traveling miles down unpaved caliche roads and opening farm gates to treat everything from family cats to cattle, sheep, and horses.

“New Mexico has always been my home,” Everett said. “I’ve lived other places, but it’s always been the place that’s called me.”

Her journey back was forged through local roots. A veteran of 4-H and FFA in Estancia, Everett spent her youth showing pygmy goats, market lambs, and horses before earning an animal science degree from New Mexico State University in 2022. That local upbringing has proven essential as she navigates the skeptics: young and in her late 20s, she is stepping onto ranches run by weathered livestock producers who have worked the land for decades.

“A lot of these grizzled old men know my dad or know my parents,” Everett said, crediting her parents, Joe and Melody Everett, for backing her dream. “Still, some people say, ‘Well, what do you know? You’re a kid.’ I just tell them, ‘I am, but I’m a vet. That’s why they call it veterinary practice—because we’re always practicing medicine, always learning, always getting better.'”

Armed with modern diagnostic technology—including pocket-sized ultrasounds that plug directly into a smartphone—Everett brings twenty-first-century care to barnyard stalls that once had to rely solely on guesswork.

Working with her parents, Everett is currently navigating permits and blueprints to construct a permanent brick-and-mortar clinic off historic Route 66 near Moriarty, slated to open next year. Even with a physical clinic, she has no intention of abandoning the road. Echoing the rural British countryside stories of James Herriot she devoured as a child, her mission remains caring for “all creatures great and small” right on their home turf.

“There are days that are hard, and days you feel like you do nothing right,” Everett said. “But then there are days where you make someone’s life so much better. You just have to hold onto those.”

For the families scattered across the windswept foothills of the East Mountains, the arrival of Everett’s mobile rig means more than medical care. It means someone finally answered the call. If you want Dr. Everett to answer your call her phone number is 505-886-2108.