by Vera Jirnov
Horses are a big part of Anna Krickbaum's life. She enjoys spending time with them and says that they are very healing. “I first formed an interest in horses when I was 4 or 5,” Anna said. She works at a ranch Sundays and goes there “every once in a while” during the week.
Anna was born in Denver and has moved around a lot ever since being adopted. She has lived in Montrose, Arvada, Ridgway, Ouray, and now near Colona. She mentioned that she “transferred to Ouray in 8th grade from Drake Middle School in Arvada.”
Anna’s dad John Krickbaum has the biggest impact on her life. “He's always been there for me no matter what and during all the hard times,” she said. “He's really never left my side and he always takes the time to listen to what I have to say and just makes sure I'm doing good in school, doing good in life, and making sure that I can succeed in life.”
Anna will miss “seeing my friends every day” and “all my adventures with” them. “Just last Saturday me, Ava, and Luna, we went to Moab, and we went to the Arches,” she said. Luna Sandoval enjoyed that spring break trip to Moab as well: “it was a lot of fun,” she said. One memory that Luna has with Anna is when they were sophomores and they would eat lunch together. “We would all go to the store and then we would walk down somewhere outside, in an alleyway, and we would just sit down and eat. It was nice,” Luna said.
Luna enthused that Anna “is just a reliable person which is hard to find in people, and she is really funny. She is good at cheering people up.”
Anna’s other hobbies include “hanging out with my friends, camping, and traveling.” Annas' favorite place she has traveled was Mexico because “the ocean was really beautiful” and she thinks it's “just such a neat place.” Anna also mentioned that “they have really good food and drinks and everything is at a good price.”
Anna enjoys reading “if it's the right book.” Her favorite book is Desert Chrome. She said that she liked “the whole story behind it because it's about this woman who was in a really bad life situation, and she turned to drugs and all that stuff, but then she ended up getting introduced to horses and so the horses ended up saving her life.”
When I asked Anna to describe her perfect day all she said at first was that she would spend it “in the field with hundreds of horses.” She would start the day by drinking “two cups of coffee” and end it “by taking a nice relaxing bath.”
A piece of advice Anna would give a freshman is “No matter how hard a class seems you just have to try your hardest cause as long as you’re trying that's gonna give you the best feeling because trying gives you some sort of reward sometimes.”
If Anna could be anyone in the world she would stay herself. “I kind of like myself,” she said. Anna's biggest dream is to “be successful, keep a steady lifestyle, and hopefully not have any financial problems or rough times that cause any sort of fallouts in life.”
After graduation, Anna plans to “take a gap year” to work and travel, and then in the fall she plans to go to college. “I'm not exactly sure where I'm gonna go yet but most likely somewhere in Nebraska,” she said. During her gap year Anna plans to “work more with horses” and “adventure” around the state.