Our Story
Dr. Lyle Robinson is the founder of the Arivaca Animal Clinic and has now recently retired to spend more time with his family. Lyle Elton Robinson was born January 24, 1938 in Santa Rita, New Mexico to Elton and Alta Robinson. Lyle went to Colorado Agriculture and Mechanical College in Fort Collins, Colorado to do his pre-veterinary classes. Then in 1956 the College changed to Colorado State University. Lyle was accepted to the Veterinary College at CSU in 1958. He and Mollie got married in 1957. Lyle’s senior year of vet school, he worked for a veterinarian named Dr. Means who was the first person to get licensed in the state of New Mexico (#1). Lyle graduated as a veterinarian in 1962. Upon graduation, Lyle got licensed to be a Veterinarian in Colorado (#1546), New Mexico (#194), and Texas (#2071) and has kept all those licenses active for 59 years. His first job as a veterinarian was in Silver City, New Mexico for Dr. E.J. Siemer, a small animal veterinarian. Dr. Siemer is the man who taught Lyle how to perform the flank spay for dogs and cats. After working there for 6 months, they heard that Gallup, N.M. needed a veterinarian so Lyle and Mollie picked up and moved to Gallup in January 1963 and started their own business. Lyle and Mollie opened up Gallup Animal Clinic in 1963 in an old gas station. Lyle worked very hard starting the clinic. On top of Veterinary medicine, Lyle did his own grooming of the dogs too but he did hire a young man to clean the cages and the clinic. They worked in that first old gas station for almost a year before they moved the clinic into a a bigger facility on 124 S. Bradley, Gallup, NM. The business was very successful and kept them very busy. Mollie would still help out as much as possible even with 4 kids.
Lyle missed ranching, so in 1969 Lyle and Mollie purchased the Tres Bellotas Ranch South of Arivaca, Arizona in the mountains of the Coronado National Forest in Santa Cruz County right on the Mexican border. Lyle's Dad and Mom became the ranch managers and moved to Tres Bellotas. Once a month, Lyle and Mollie would pack up all 4 kids and travel 8 hours to the ranch in Arivaca, Arizona Friday night after work and then leave the ranch about 2:00 pm Sunday afternoon and drive back to Gallup so he could be at work on Monday morning. In 1976 Lyle's Dad got cancer and needed to retire from running the ranch. So Lyle finally made the decision to sell the Gallup Animal Clinic to Dr. Clint Balok in the summer of 1976 and they moved to the Tres Bellotas Ranch. They had the clinic in Gallup for 13 years when they made this big move to Arizona. Lyle and Mollie enjoyed running the ranch and taking a break from having a veterinary business. Lyle enjoyed caring for cattle and managing the ranch. Then in 1989 the Tohono O'odham (Papagos) Reservation hired him to be their reservation Veterinarian once a week on Fridays. So once a week he would drive 2 ½ hours one way to be the veterinarian for the Papago Reservation. He worked on Fridays for the reservation for 25 years.
The clinic was finished for the grand opening of Arivaca Animal Clinic in March 2014. Lyle was 76 and Mollie was 74 years old for this new business adventure. Their daughter Lindle is the practice manager and a technician, Mollie helps run the office, does the payroll, and is technician to Lyle when no one else is available. All the grandkids have grown up working with their grandfather at some time or another as his technicians. It has been a family business for 17 years. Lyle has one son-in-law, Cliff Honnas, who is an equine veterinarian that owns an Equine Referral Hospital in Bryan, Texas. Dr. Robinson also has 3 grandkids that have followed in his footsteps as a veterinarian. In 2017, Cheri Honnas graduated as a veterinarian from Texas A&M University, in 2018 Lauren Robinson graduated from Ross University and in 2020 Henre Honnas graduated as a Veterinarian from the Royal College of Veterinary school in London. In 2017, Arivaca Animal Clinic was operating on a part-time basis. In the Fall of 2017, at the age of 78, Dr. Robinson decided to open up the clinic full time - 6 days a week to see if the business could support two Veterinarians. His granddaughter, Lauren Robinson Lyssy, would be graduating from Veterinary school and wanted to return to Arivaca and work with him. By March 2018 when Lauren was licensed in the state of Arizona, the business was going very strong at 6 days a week with no emergency services. Dr. Robinson and Dr. Lyssy have worked well together for the past 3 years and have built the business into what it is today. Lindle, Dr. Robinson’s daughter, is still the practice manager of the clinic plus technician. Lyle and Mollie have recruited their second daughter Lorie, to help with the finances and their granddaughter, Mollie Honnas, to do the payroll and taxes of the clinic as Mollie is a CPA. This continues to be a family run business. Dr. Robinson (83 yrs old) and Mollie (81 yrs old) have built a strong Veterinary Practice and are now going to retire. They have built a strong veterinary and ranching legacy for their family that will continue on for many generations. Their family and community loves, honors and respects them.
