Horse Tail Trails

As of late, we have been entertaining out-of-state family and friends.  A cousin Georgia came this past weekend to New Mexico to see us.  The flight over and the time difference made her very tired on her first day in.  Even while she was half asleep on the couch, she was very enthusiastic to go out to eat here.  Her mission; getting some sopaipillas.  She made a sound of pure glee when she heard that there is a restaurant in the area named Sopaipilla Factory.  With everyone getting ready to go around her, she stayed flopped on the couch with a smile.  We asked if she was sure she was up to going out to eat, to which she announced, "I'm just gonna fall asleep in a pile of sopaipillas."

Sopaipilla Factory is located in Pojoaque, near the super market.  It’s an interested change from most Northern New Mexican restaurants in style and feel. The nicely landscaped yard welcomes guests into a casual and modern-feeling, open atmosphere restaurant.  The walls are painted with speckled grey blue, there are green tables, red booths, and tile floors with earth and aqua colors.  Rainbow corn and dried chile hang on the walls, along with mini tapestries with petroglyph motifs.  Even the humming birds come here to eat, with feeders hanging outside the large windows.

Horse Tail Trials is dedicated to promoting local small business, artists, and events.  We provide information for locals and tourists alike through our business directory, event list, articles and short video segments.  Our goal is to serve as a guide to Northern New Mexico, where an abundance of things are always happening.

What is the purpose of articles?

Getting the word around about a business, event, or even just a neat place to go can often be difficult.  It can feel outright impossible sometimes.  Our articles are reviews on places, businesses, and note-worthy people in Northern New Mexico communities.  By writing up short articles and even making videos, we help to heighten the awareness of what hidden treasures we have in the state.  We provide an extra boost of advertising, most of which is completely free.  Everyone could use some free PR in this economy.

I have a friend with a love of traveling.  He’s lived in multiple cities all over the US.  His adventures brought him to New Mexico for a few years, which is when I met him.  He takes the stories of this place along with him, telling others about this wild west we live in and continually marveling at how little the rest of the country seems to know about our state.  This spring, he returned for a brief stay with us. 

As I dragged myself downstairs for breakfast on the first morning he was here, he came bopping in through the front door with a spring in his step and a broad smile.  “Let’s go out to breakfast,” he said enthusiastically while I was still blinking sleep from my eyes.  “Is that one place still open?  JoAnn’s?”  I thought he would jump for joy when I informed him that it is.

Roger Montoya has been running Arts in the Schools Programs for ten years.  Using art, dance, and acting, students help to put together an end show that always has a packed audience and is always a parent-pleaser.  The shows incorporate visual and performing arts, creating a performance that every child can participate in and feel proud of.  The program has been active in many public schools around the Espanola area, including San Juan, James H. Rodriguez, and Velarde Elementary schools.

Recently a proposal was made that would shift much of the Arts in the Schools funding away from both Montoya’s program and another program based out of Santa Fe, Fine Arts for Children and Teens (FACT), which has been working with Espanola schools for some time as well.  Instead of covering the kindergarten through sixth-grade groups that Montoya has been currently working with, this funding change would leave the visual arts program with only enough money to cover a single grade per school year.  What would this funding be doing instead?  It would go into a music program that would have to be built from the ground up.