By Grace Hollars for The Horse Resource

Cristian Esqueda is an up and coming jockey who is realizing his dream with the help and guidance of Roy and Penny Moore of Michigan. Read about Cristian’s early years in America, his struggle to find his place and how he is now climbing the ladder of success in the racing world.

Looking For Home
As ten-year-old Cristian Esqueda stepped onto United States soil, he heard a language he did not understand and was surrounded by people he didn’t know. He soon came to realize he was far from his Mexican home.

“Many days and months went by like a blur,” Esqueda wrote in an English paper for one of his classes. “Some of my memories were of moving from place to place and knowing not only my family and I were different, but the kind of food we ate, our clothes, our holidays, our names, everything about us was different.”

His first memories of his journey to the United States began in Ohio where he and his family of three brothers, two sisters, and his parents continued to move to different Spanish Community trailer parks. After two years of jump¬ing around the map of the Great Lakes region, they settled down in one of the communities and finally started to get comfortable. Cristian said at the age of 12 is where his memories became clearer and he started to understand his new life better. He also recalls the difficulties picking up the English language.

“I could write it better than I could speak it,” he said. “So many words have the same meaning and sound the same such as wood and would or wear and where. They sound the same, but they meant different things and that really confused me.”

During Esqueda’s early years of being in America, it was not uncommon to leave behind the friends he made in one area. One that sticks out in his mem¬ory was his 12-year-old best friend Jamie (pronounced “Himey”.) Esqueda considered them brothers who played soccer every day. Once it was time to move again, he packed his bags and traveled to his next new home in Indiana, leaving his dear friend behind, knowing he likely will never see him again. Soon after moving to Indiana, Cristian’s father got into trouble and was sent back to Mexico, leaving his family with a new child and never returning. This is where Cristian and his brother Caeser Esqueda were sent to work at multiple places. Caeser went to a dairy farm while Cristian went to a farm where he dug ditches to drain water off the fields. As the months continued to pass, Caeser chose to not go back to school while Cristian returned to school, joined the soccer and wrestling teams, then finished out the school year.

Finding The Passion
Finally, summer came and Cristian went back to work for his family, but this time he started working on a horse farm where he learned how to exercise and run race horses.

“I did well in sports at school, but working and rid¬ing race horses after school was to become my pas¬sion,” he said. “My brother would pick me up after school and go to the horse farm every night to work horses together. Then one day my brother didn’t show up to the horse farm. He was gone.”

On Caeser’s way to get Cristian, he was stopped by the police, ended up get¬ting arrested for driving with no license, and was deported to Mexico. Cris¬tian had to leave school and the horse farm to work on the drainage ditches once again. A few months later, Cristian’s mother got a job and he was able to go back to school and work horses after school once again.

While Cristian continued to work on the horse farm, his mother was working with a lawyer to bring home his brother from Mexico.

“This was taking a lot of time and money that my mom didn’t have, but she would not stop,” Cristian recalled.

The Start of Something Really Good
Since Cristian worked race horses, he would occasionally go to the track with his trainer to watch other jockeys work horses, but he could not breeze the horses himself since he did not have a jockey license. Luckily, he met Jose Beltran, who soon introduced him to Roy and Penny Moore. Roy and Penny own and race Quarter Horses and are strongly connected in the horse world. The Moores are known for helping immigrants come to America to train and become jockeys. One jockey who went through the Moores’ home was Oscar Del Gato, a well-known Quarter Horse jockey around the country who is now also getting into the Thoroughbred business.

“The first thing I saw was kind of scary. It was Roy, and he had tobacco in his mouth and he looked kind of scary,” Cristian said. “Then I talked to Penny and she was really nice, and then I talked to Roy and he was the nicest guy ever.”

Cristian finally got the opportunity to work for the Moores as a substitute for Jose, who traveled to Mexico to visit his family. Before leaving his family to start working for the Moores, Cristian’s mother was still battling to bring home his brother, Caeser. After many months of hard work and lawyers, Cae¬ser was finally home and with a relieved mother, Cristian felt comfortable enough to leave his family to make his way to Michigan to the Moores. On his way to Michigan, Cristian was stopped by a police officer and was ticketed for driving without a license. At the time, Cristian was not a legal citizen of the United States and since his parents brought him over here from Mexico, he does not have a Social Security number. Therefore, he is unable to get a driver’s license.

“My parents brought me here to the U.S. with no papers from Mexico, so I am what people call an ‘alien’. I hate that word. It makes me feel like some kind of monster. All I am is a kid whose parents wanted a better life for,” said Cristian.

Cristian was thankful for not getting sent back to Mexico, but he did pay the price for breaking the law. He did his 48 hours in jail and paid the fines for driving without a license. After a week of delays, he was finally on his way to work for the Moores. When he arrived, he was surprised by the way Penny and Roy had their own system of working horses and had rules for jock¬eys. The rules included things such as drinking, drugs, lying, stealing and no speaking Spanish. Of course, the eager Cristian abided by them.

“We taught him how to ride here and the way we do things,” said Penny.

They expressed how important it is in America to go back to school and finish it.

“He would be working on homework while rid¬ing in the truck on the way to the track,” said Penny.

Cristian worked hard at it and he finished school.

Building a New Life
“Cristian would call us all the time because he has an absent father in his life. How he lived was really tough, and being not legal was also tough. They really have to hide out,” said Penny.

One phone call that Penny will never forget is when Cristian called them from jail. A few weeks earlier, Cristian told Roy that a kid at his school was bullying him. Roy, being old-fashioned, told Cristian to “pop him in the face,” and Cristian took Roy’s advice and was put in jail for a week¬end.

Penny chuckles as she reminisces on the comi¬cal moment. “I’ll never forget that phone call. We answered the phone, and he said, “Guess where I’m at!? In jail!””

Esqueda was inspired by the Moores’ history with other jockeys and dreamed of winning awards along with being a leading jockey in certain parks. But first, he started out with Penny ponying the horse he was working.

“Things were going great! I learned so much until Penny and Roy decided to let me go on my own without a lead pony. Penny had a thoroughbred. She told me he was very strong and not to let him get going too fast because he would take off running,” describes Cristian. “Well of course that is exactly what happens, because what do you think they forget to teach me? How to stop a runaway horse! Around the track I went faster. I wasn’t scared, it was kind of fun.”

Penny, Roy, and Jose were at the end of the track, and by waving their arms to distract the horse, they helped slow down the thoroughbred.

After a few weeks, it was time for Jose to take his trip to Mexico to see his family. Cristian stepped up to fill his spot. Soon he ventured to the track to the Stewarts, who are the leaders of the track that approves riders to make sure they are safe to ride on the track and also make decisions regarding the track. They watched him ride occasionally until he was finally approved to ride and was able to ride for other trainers if they request him to ride their horse. Since he was a new jockey, Cristian struggled to find trainers to ride for in the beginning. He felt as if he had an advantage on other horses because of his weight, which was seven pounds under the standard weight for a jockey. With the help of Roy he finally got a trainer who agreed to give Cristian eight races.

Roy helped his jockey learn the special rules for the jockey’s room, for the paddock area, and for the stage where the horses are paraded in front of the grandstands to the bettors and the winner’s circle.

Race day came and Cristian followed Roy’s instructions before the race, but what really shocked him, was the race itself. After he loaded in the first gate and the starting buzzer sounded, Cristian lost the grip on his reins. By the time he grabbed his reins to regain control, he realized he was fifth. As he continued in the furlong race his legs began to burn with pain, but he fought through and began to chase the lead horses.

“I was going for second coming out of the turn, and I thought, ‘I can live with second!’ But by the stretch I passed the lead horse and I won! Just like my dream!” said Cristian.

When the leaves began to change, it was time for Cristian to hang up his silks and return to school. Even though he dreaded the thought of it, he continued his education. He fin¬ished another year of school and went back to Michigan to ride for the Moores.

Cristian smiles upon the memory of a happy Quarter Horse he enjoyed riding, Bucket List. He won his second race in a row on Bucket List. He said it was two races he’ll always remember.

While pursuing his legal citizanship, Cristian continued riding all summer in Michigan, Indiana and the Match races, Cristian and his brother, with the help and encouragement of the Moores, received their visas as part of the Dream Act. With excitement in his voice, he exclaimed, “I am now what they call A-Dreamer!”

Cristian started out with small dreams and made them happen. Today he listed in the top 40 jockeys in the nation and has earned almost $271,000 dollars in last year’s season. This year his goals are to earn over $300,000 dollars. Cristian is also considering welding school for a future career and is happily engaged. One can say he is living the American dream, but in Penny Moore’s words, “The American Dream is to be American.”

Article written by Grace Hollars for The Horse Resource May 2015
Reprinted with permission from The Horse Resource.

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