Kristina Slaby grew up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. She started taking riding lessons at the age of 8 and has been involved in the hunter/jumper world ever since. While in college, she fell in love with hunt seat catch riding through the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA). She now competes in Jumpers with her one-eyed, red-headed thoroughbred mare. She also teaches lessons and serves as an assistant coach for the IHSA and Interscholastic Equestrian Association team.
Kristina holds a bachelor's degree in molecular and cellular biology as well as a master's degree in management, both from the University of Illinois. After working as a barn manager in the area for a year, she found her home at Midwest Equine. She has a lot of horse experience but only had ever been on the client side of veterinary medicine until she started working at Midwest Equine.
In her free time, Kristina teaches riding lessons at a local barn in St. Joseph and is the assistant coach for the University of Illinois Hunt Seat riding team, as well as the barn’s Interscholastic Equestrian Association team. She rides her redheaded, one-eyed, Thoroughbred mare regularly and takes her to small Indiana jumper shows when she can. If she is not in the barn, then she is probably at home hanging out with her dog Jax.
Kristina is a busy bee in her free time and enjoys combining her various backgrounds to be successful in her job. Having a detailed biology background allows her to understand the veterinary medicine side, her management experience gives her the financial understanding of their business, and her horse knowledge helps her communicate with their clients and patients [citation].