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Riding to the top Jackie Fisher Stred's pearly whites and rosy cheeks can be seen beaming in show rings across the country. She has reason to smile.   Jackie Stred   Fellow horse lovers designated Stred, AB '64, Horse World magazine's 2000 People's Choice Amateur of the Year for American saddlebred horseback riding, an accolade she also earned in 1999. Stred commands respect among equestrians as the only amateur and only woman to win one of the three major stakes at Lexington, Ky. And she's done it twice, winning the Three-Gaited Grand Championship on her horse, Winter Day, in 1997 and 1998. "We are really having a great time," says Stred, a licensed emergency medical technician. "My husband and I are very fortunate to own the horses we do." When they're not traveling across the country competing, Stred and her husband, Walt, go back and forth between their homes in Lexington, where their horses stay year-round, and Tampa, Fla. Stred has nabbed nearly 30 world championships and victories at major shows with several of her American saddlebreds, including Winter Day. An Athens native, Stred fell in love with horses as a child. "I was sickly, and my grandmother who lived on a farm decided I needed to be outside," she says. "When I was 5, they bought me a pony. My parents thought for sure after college that horses would go down the drain, but that didn't happen. It's been a lifelong thing. I was very lucky to have parents who supported my sport and got me to the best trainers there were at the time." Stred is partial to American saddlebreds. "They are just the epitome of anything you could think of in horses," she says. "They have dash, spirit and they are absolutely gorgeous and courageous!" She and Winter Day, the People's Choice Amateur Three-Gaited Horse of the Year and Reserve Overall Saddlebred of the Year, are a favorite pair at shows. "I have moms tell me that when a new picture of Winter Day and I comes out, their daughters have it plastered up on the wall," Stred says. "I've even had moms say I'm a role model to teen girls. I guess I'd better start watching what I'm doing." -- Katie Fitzgerald Back to Bobcat Tracks