In 1977, 6 young orcas were captured and transferred to Dolfinarium Harderwijk. Two of the orcas, Peanut* and Frya, were bought by SeaWorld and transferred to Windsor Safari Park as a trade for the male Ramu/Winston*, who was transferred to SeaWorld a year before. Peanut (later named Hoi Wai) soon left Windsor to train at Clacton Pier and then later sold to Ocean Parkin Hong Kong. Frya was soon renamed Winnie, in honour of the park manager's wife.

Winnie was a very good performer and the park's star attraction and she also was never aggressive to her trainers. Winnie spent four years on her own until Nemo arrived from Clacton Pier. trainers hoped they would be a good couple, but they didn't get along and Nemo died within two years of the transfer.
 
On October 26, 1991, after many anti-captivity moves in the UK, she was sent to Sea World to join their breeding programme. She met many dominant females, who often picked on her. Winnie was much smaller than the other orcas and never fit in well at the Orlando park so she became very submissive.

In October 1994, she was transferred again, this time to the Ohio park, where she met Kayla, a young female who was born at Sea World San Antonio. Winnie soon became the dominant female and both got along very well, performing at the park for 5 years. Due to renovations, the two girls had to be moved, this time to the Texas park. Again Winnie met a very dominant female, Haida II, but to everyone's surprise, the two ladies got along well. Unfortunately Haida died in 2001 and the whole group was shocked and didn't want to perform for awhile. Winnie soon after took over the role as a dominant female but not even a year after Haida's death, Winnie also died.

She swallowed many objects during her stay at Windsor Safari Park, those caused a blocked intestine, which led to her death 20 years later; she had eaten over 12 lb (5.5 kg) of junk that blocked her intestine, preventing her body absorbing nutrients.