One of the reasons I chose to do this podcast is because I believe that everyone has a great story to tell. We have all lived interesting lives and I love to hear the path people have taken to get to where they are.Cristina is one of those surprise packages that I was fascinated by! She has a wonderful story to tell about her childhood in Spain. She recounts being a small and timid child and how her mother, who did not want her to miss out on a life with horses, decided she should learn to ride on a pony, instead of on a large horse as was normally the way children were taught in her country. Her mum brought a pony from England for Cristina to learn to ride on and, sometime later, one summer, her sister began offering riding lessons on him. In just a couple of months she was booked out! Thus, soon after, with mum at the helm, they began the first children’s riding school to use ponies in Spain.Cristina went on to compete in eventing and came very close to representing Spain at the Barcelona 1992 Olympics. She trained in England for several years and, although she missed out on Olympic selection, she represented her country at 3* CCI Events, including the Young Rider European Championships. Her level of riding, as you can see from the pictures on my blog, was right up there with the best!Life then took her to New Zealand and subsequently Australia where after some years she came to work at horses and people magazine. Once she decided to become an owner of the magazine with Maxine Ellison, who you will hear from on next weeks episode, the magazine began to change. It went from an event schedule that let you know what was coming up in the horse world, to a magazine with a clear vision of making the world better for horses by educating their owners on the many facets of owning and interacting with horses.It's a fantastic story of the vision and passion it takes to put something of such a high standard to print each month and the values that she is driven by that are evident in every page of the magazine.To see the magazine, to subscribe or to get in touch with Cristina you can go to their website or find them on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter.