For years, Paula Matute Guimón stood ringside during the Adequan Global Dressage Festival’s Friday Night Stars freestyles (Florida), hoping she’d one day be able to compete in those classes, under the lights with the top riders on the winter circuit.

Coming from a well-known Spanish dressage family—her father is three-time Olympian Juan Matute Azpitarte, her brother Juan Matute Guimón represented Spain at the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games (North Carolina)—was an asset to Paula as she rose through the levels and competed internationally as a junior. But, in 2014 at age 18, she decided to step out on her own, giving up her opportunities to riding her family’s top horses and the security of the family business.

Starting her own business at such a young age was daunting, but Paula, now 26, said she always knew she had it in her to succeed. She proved that by taking her place under the lights in Friday Night Stars during the CDI4* held Jan. 27-30 at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival and scoring the first Grand Prix wins of her senior career.

Paula Matute Guimón and Delagronge. SusanJStickle.com Photo

With her own and Julie McAllister’s Oldenburg stallion Delagronge, Paula won the CDI4* Grand Prix (69.28%) and the Grand Prix freestyle with the pair’s personal best score of 74.48%.

“I never doubted myself. That’s what got me through,” she said of branching out on her own. “I always knew I was going to make it because I’m quite stubborn, but I also knew I’d have to put in a lot of work. I just knew what I had to do, and I did it. I always had this blind faith that it was going to happen at some point, but it wasn’t a miracle. Nothing came and knocked on my door. I had to go out there and make it happen, which is why I’m also enjoying this so much. I know everything that I had to go through. It’s true, that quote, that to really enjoy the victories you have to go through the hard times so you can really appreciate it.”

As the daughter of Matute Azpitarte and Maria Matute, Paula grew up riding in Spain with her brother Juan. The family began spending winters in Wellington when Paula was a teenager, and she was well-mounted for the FEI Junior and Young Rider divisions, the small tour and Grand Prix on horses like Tarpan Ymas and Califa XV.

But by 2014, Paula was ready to leave the nest and try something new.

“I’ve always been very independent, ever since I was a little girl, and I definitely had my own ideas and my thoughts,” she said. “I was 18, so it wasn’t easy at all. … I lost the horses I had at the time, and I had to start from scratch. I think it’s one thing if you’ve never had a taste of it and another thing when you’ve had a taste of it and walked away from it, because then you’ll want it again.”

Paula Matute Guimón has dreams of riding on a Spanish team with her brother Juan Matute Guimón. Photo Courtesy Of Paula Matute Guimón

Finding a barn to rent in Wellington, then clients and sales horses, took time and happened slowly, but Paula was patient.

“Ever since then I’ve been trying to come back to competition, but it’s been really difficult. I’d go to all the Friday Night Stars to watch, and I thought to myself, ‘What do I need to do to come back? What does it take?’ I started to pick up clients and did that for many years, and the horses started to get better and better,” she said. “I started my own operation in a barn in Wellington that I rented. Then I rented another one, and one thing led to the other, and [Delagronge] came into training. Because he belonged to his owner, it wasn’t right away that I knew he was going to be for me, but it just kind of happened with time. Through the client and through having my own operation and having horses come in for training is how I’ve been able to come back.”

Delagronge, a 14-year-old Oldenburg (De Niro 6—Daheema, Delphi), has been in the barn for a few years now. Paula first focused on confirming his Grand Prix work, then she started showing him last year. They’ve since done a handful of CDIs, and Paula said she already feels like she’s known “Denny” forever.

“In the ring, I’ve felt what I’ve never felt before,” she said. “It’s like he totally knows what he’s supposed to do. Maybe with some other horses before I’d always felt like I had to guide them through it, but with him I feel like he’s saying to me, ‘I’ve got you. I know what you want, and I know what we’re supposed to do.’ I rely on him completely. It’s a feeling of a partnership that I’ve never had before. He’s so intelligent. He’s almost human-like, so I know exactly what he’s thinking. It’s amazing. I feel like it’s just the two of us in there.”

The stallion is intelligent but not playful, Paula said. He’s a very serious “gentleman.”

Paula’s been getting help from her father, who moved back to Spain a few years ago, when he flies back to the U.S. She’s looking forward to seeing him and her brother Juan in the coming weeks when Juan comes to the U.S. compete in a CDI-W at AGDF.

The siblings had been apart for almost two years because of COVID-19 and Juan’s unexpected health issues.

“It was some very difficult times for us,” she said. “Of course I have my business here with the horses, so it was also hard for me to leave at the time, and of course COVID had a lot to do with it. But he came about a month ago to surprise me, and it was the best surprise ever.”

Despite branching off on her own, Paula said her family is completely supportive and proud of her for making her own way in the sport and advised her to “follow your dreams and passion and, at the end of the day, you have to do what makes you happy.”

She hopes to target a CDI-W with Denny in a few weeks and will see what happens from there. In addition she has a 7-year-old Hanoverian gelding in the barn, also owned by McAllister, Furstenherz (Furst Nymphenburg—Royals Roxana).

“It’s taken all these years to get to this point and a lot of sacrifice, and yeah, leaving some awesome things behind as well, but now it’s my own path, and it’s my own way, and that’s what I’ve always wanted, and I’m super happy,” she said.

“In the long term I would love to be able to go to the Olympic Games,” she continued. “I think that’s the goal that every athlete has in mind, and it’s always been a dream of mine since I was very young. I’m going to give it all I’ve got. I know it takes so many things to make it, and so many of those things are not under our control. But on my end I’m going to do everything I can to make that happen and be able to follow my dad’s legacy. I would love to be able to make it on a team with my brother. I think that’s the biggest dream of all.”