Business Owner- Kristina Nielsen

Kristina has lived in Santa Cruz County most of her life, spending some time in South Lake Tahoe. She has always been interested in working with children. She started her journey becoming a Red Cross certified baby sitter at 11 years old and volunteering at local daycare and taking on many baby sitting clients. Later, starting at fourteen years old, worked in numerous licensed preschools, daycare, and after-school programs for children and eventually on to study Early Childhood Education at Cabrillo College. She spent over ten years working as the ranch manager and performer for a local company providing petting zoos, pony rides, etc to birthday parties and festivals in the tri-county area. She has been passionate about animals and teaching children her whole life. As a child, she often wanted her friends play "school", a game where they filled out curriculum created by her at a desk. Young Kristina was crazy about horses, and checked out every horse book from the school and public libraries! Finally in 2003, a third grade Kristina started her lifelong horse adventure. It started with 5+ years of horse riding lessons at Mending Hearts, progressing to leasing horses, earning money working with horses, and finally getting her first horse! In 2015, Kristina thought of the name "Tails of Redwood Trails" for a horse lesson program, and launched an 8 week trial class revolving around groundwork, care, anatomy, and diet of miniature horses she cared for. In 2018, Tails of Redwood Trails emerged from one of Kristina's favorite things, taking the children she babysat, nannied, or cared for to spend time socializing and learning about her first horse, Juliette, and the other animals she worked with. In 2021, Tails of Redwood Trails became a Limited Liability Company, and Kristina's full time job. In addition to being crazy about animals, Kristina's key interests include nature, art, and music. Kristina lives on site at Zayante Hollow Ranch with her elementary school daughter and her Fiance, owner of Nyx Tech. Kristina hopes to soon open up other locations outside of Santa Cruz County to teach classes, retire older horses, and house rescue horses who will never be suitable for riding. She is also a certified lifeguard!