Page 91 - June 2018 Speedhorse

“Always be willing to try something out of your comfort zone. You never know what job you might enjoy, if you don’t try something new.”
KRISTEN ASHLEY PAREDES
Champion Owner
Kristen Ashley Paredes is just 25 years old, but she’s already made serious waves in the sport of Quarter Horse racing. In 2016, her colt Duponte won the Heritage Place Futurity-G1 as the highlight in a rookie campaign that accumulated more than $500,000 in prize money. Named the top owner at the Remington Park meet for that year, Paredes sold shares of Duponte to Bobby Cox and Homero Paredes
- and the horse went out and was named the 2017 Champion 3-Year-Old Colt.
Like so many in racing, Paredes grew up in the sport because it was ingrained in her family. Her parents, Edmar and Belinda Paredes, have been running Quarter Horses for more than two decades. She got her start helping care for and train her parents’ horses, which meant getting up at 5 a.m., to work the horses, feed them, and muck their stalls.
Paredes sees no reason why other women
- whether or not they have those connections - cannot carve out their own successful careers in the industry.
“I think women need to chase the dream,” she said. “Male and female horse trainers/ owners are given equal opportunity, so I believe women just need to not be afraid to go after their dreams. If you have a passion and a dream to be part of the Quarter Horse industry, go
for it. Don’t be afraid of chasing your dreams. The industry has plenty of resources, which are helpful and willing to help you learn and grow to be a part of it.”
Paredes started attending Tarleton State in Texas, pursuing a degree in Equine Science,
but she left school after her brother, Edmar Jr., was diagnosed with leukemia. Paredes returned home to help care for her brother and help with the family business. Her time in the classroom may have come to an end, but she gained a real- life education in managing horse expenses.
She credits her parents and her uncle, Omar, for fueling her passion for the sport. “Anytime
I struggled figuring out a horse, they would help me learn and figure it out,” she said. “My parents have taught me how to pick horses to purchase for racing at horse sales by going off the horse’s breeding, conformation, and other things to look for. The best quality my mentors have taught me is perseverance - when you don’t win that race you have been looking forward to or get that horse you have had your eye on, it’s about not giving up and having fun.”
For Paredes, watching the evolution of a horse on the track is both fun and fulfilling. “The most rewarding thing I do is working with a horse and seeing it go to training and hit the race track,” she said. “I love to care for and work with the horses, whether it’s a foal that grows
up at the ranch and I watch it grow for a year before it goes off to the trainer, or nursing a hurt horse to be sound and watching it get back into training and running strong.
“The most challenging thing about what I do is not getting attached to the horses,” Paredes added. “There are times when I have to accept that I cannot keep them all and have to re-home the horses that do not fit the racing program ... It is challenging that you cannot have them all.”
Paredes certainly found a good one in Duponte, who was acquired at the 2015 TQHA Yearling Sale. With the reigning AQHA Champion 3-Year-Old Colt now in stud standing at James Ranch, Paredes is out looking for, as she puts it, “our next Champion.”
“We travel throughout Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. In between, we are at the trainers’ ranches, breeding farms or veterinary clinics checking on
our horses we have there at that time.
One of my goals is for one of my home- bred horses to be a winner. Although,
I am not a breeder, per se, I do keep
a couple of mares that we like to
breed. I would love to see one of our homebred babies qualify and win
one of the three big futurities at
Ruidoso Downs. Another goal
is to maintain a small but successful stable for years to come.”
Paredes thinks there’s no reason why gender should stand in the way of any motivated individual seeking to be successful. “Although the racing industry has been mainly male- dominated, both male and female have an equal opportunity,” she said. “So, chase that dream and don’t be afraid. Don’t give up. Keep it about having fun, loving horses, meeting new people with the same interest, and making lifelong friends.”
“Don’t be afraid of chasing your dreams.”
SPEEDHORSE, June 2018 89