Maren Winnick has been riding horses all her life; she even represented the United States in a recent international collegiate tournament in Europe; but she says her riding career is just beginning.
"I want to think of this [achievement] not as an ending, but as a beginning," Winnick said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
Earlier this month, Winnick represented the United States in the International Intercollegiate Equestrian Nation's Cup in Belgium.
"It's an overwhelming feeling to be able to represent my country," she added.
Winnick's riding career started long ago "as far as I can remember," she said. "I just love doing it."
After a series of application process, she recently rode for Team USA during the tournament held during April 6-9.
The East Amherst, N.Y. native was one of the six Americans who competed against several dozen countries. Winnick and her team took home fourth-place prize from the event.
In Belgium, Winnick rode in two types of competition " stadium jumping and dressage " while using horses from the hosting farms.
The stadium jumping is judged on her position over a course of 10-12 jumps set at a height of 3'6".
On the other hand, the dressage involves letters set around a 20 x 60-meter arena and the horse and rider do different movements at the different letters. Winnick described dressage as "figure skating on a horse."
Winnick said, "It was a great chance to meet people from other parts of the country as well as people from other countries."
Through the friends she made in Belgium, Winnick said she found a summer job in Holland working with European riders.
Asked what motivates her, Winnick said, "I don't really have any sort of motto ... I just believe in pushing myself."
Winnick, a psychology major with pre-medicine studies, has not been assigned a class year due to her transfer status.
"Maren has a wonderful attitude about the team from the first minute she set foot on the farm," Dartmouth coach Sally Boillotat said.
Winnick was recently selected as next year's captain for the Dartmouth Equestrian team.
"She's made a great contribution to the open division in our intercollegiate horse shows and has added many points to our team tally at the shows," Boillotat said.
"She and another team member organized and followed through on a team fund-raiser that bought 20 new show saddle pads for the farm and our horses."
According to Boillotat, last summer Megan Phillips '99 and Jennifer Renz '01 competed at the same type of competition in New York.
Selected members of the riding team will be competing at the Zone Championship at Greenfield, Mass on April 22.
Winnick is active in various student organizations on campus, including Student Assembly. She also volunteers at Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital and has a little brother through Tucker Foundation.