Sometimes risk are worth taking. Just ask Tracey Winter, who, only weeks before the Wellington Classic Dressage Challenge II, decided she’d give the Intermediaire I class a go with a horse that had never ridden the test before. It proved to be a wise choice, because she won the class. “I hadn’t expected the win but I was absolutely thrilled,” Winter said.

Winter and Macho, a 13-year-old Dutch gelding by Amulet and owned by Paula Fiorenza, scored a 72.00 percent in the FEI Open Intermediaire I and that was with only three weeks of practice under their belts. “I’ve ridden the test before, but not with Macho. It was his first I-1,” Winter said. “I made the decision to show him right at the time of the entry deadline. When I sent in the entry I thought, I might as well just go ahead and try the I-1.” The pair had also competed in the FEI Prix St. Georges during the show and finished third with a score of 67.75 percent.

Soon after sending in the entry to try the I-1, Winter and Macho went to work to prepare for the test. Winter admits she was a bit nervous going into competition at a level that Macho had never competed. “I had shown him before in Prix St. Georges, but I liked the I-1 test better because it fits him better. But I was a little bit nervous because of the short time I had to prepare him. I really had to be thinking about how to ride him in that test,” she said.

The pair entered the class for the experience with no real thought they might win. Their score and first-place finish was quite a surprise for Winter. “Since I entered for the experience, I had decided just to go for it more and take more risks in my ride. Fortunately, it paid off. When I came out of the ring I said to the owner that no matter where we finished in the class I was thrilled with him. For us that day, we just couldn’t have been any better. I just felt like it was the best that we could have done at the time regardless of where we ended up in the class.”

Winter said that Fiorenza, Macho’s owner, usually has the ride on the horse and has shown him in the lower levels. But Fiorenza turned the horse over to Winter for the Florida show season and the pair have been doing rather well. Winter believes that Macho has what it takes to go all the way to Grand Prix. “He’s got a world-class passage,” she said. But she’s not certain that she’ll be the one to take him there because she believes what is most important is that the owner has the chance to enjoy him and ride him.

Winter has been working with Macho and Fiorenza for about two years and she said the gelding hasn’t been the easiest of rides. “He’s a little bit of a know it all. And also, he was trained by a man with more leg. I’m 5' 2" and it’s taken a lot more work to get him ridden off the seat. He’s great to ride and he has a world of talent. It’s just a matter of getting him mentally focused and not wanting to be in the driver’s seat. He has to learn to let someone else be the pilot.”

While Macho may be a bit opinionated in the ring, around the barn Winter said he’s like a big puppy dog. It’s clear she has great affection for the horse and is enjoying every moment of riding him. But then, Winter admits she enjoys every moment she spends with any horse in her barn. “As they say, ‘the worst day in the barn is better than the best day in the office.’ I sure know the truth of that. I worked in an office for a long time and then just decided I needed to get out of there,” Winter said. “Running a barn can be stressful, but barn stress is a different kind of stress. It’s not like office stress.” Now she spends her days doing what she loves – riding.