After winning the Rolex Kentucky CCI****, on what must have been one of the biggest days of her life, Lucinda Fredericks insisted that her wins with Headley Britannia came second to the first love of her life: her 5-year-old daughter, Ellie.

“I’ve had all of my success since having my baby,” said Lucinda, 43. “I was quite prepared for my body to say my time was up, that I’d lost my nerve or balance. But I’ve ridden better because I train better because I don’t want to hurt myself.”

She drops Ellie off at school at 8:30 a.m. and then works with her horses from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., when she spends the rest of the day with Ellie.

“I only had this one daughter, and I had a hard enough time having her, and I’m probably not getting another at my age,” she said. “I absolutely adore her. If I’d gotten pregnant again before the Olympics, it wouldn’t have worried me. That comes first.”

Lucinda and Clayton have a superstition that Ellie can’t watch their show jumping rounds at major events. She was asleep in a stroller when Clayton won his individual silver medal at the World Equestrian Games in 2006, again when Lucinda won Burghley and Badminton, and although she was too old to put to sleep, they made sure she wasn’t watching the television from home when they show jumped in Kentucky in 2007 and 2009.

“She’s our lucky omen,” said Lucinda. “She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to us, and Brit is second.”