Mare Opens Way for Arlene Paige to Go to U.S. National Dressage Championships

The Unexpected Happened

The Mablehead, Mass. woman who was born of a boating family “and never met to ride,” the former event rider and trainer switched to dressage after a few bad accidents. When Paige settled into dressage, there were numerous breeds of horses she rode and took to clinics hosted by the U.S. Equestrian Team (now the USET Foundation). It wasn’t until she met her present husband, Dave, on a blind date on New Year’s Eve that the unexpected happen.

The real estate developer fell in love with the slender blonde and married her. He then wanted to see his new wife get what she had been looking for, a horse of international caliber with which she could succeed abroad. So he sent her off to Europe where she found Claire in Germany.

“In essence, he gave her to me after I had several good horses to train and show here, but none of them were high enough quality,” she said. To go that step above and beyond, “you have to know what it is to ride a horse with the international character and heart, along with gaits, and I didn’t know that. In Claire you have everything. She is a horse who can consistently score above 70 percent which is the name of the game.”

Paige stayed in Germany over the winter of 1999/200 in Germany after she bought the mare. In the winter of 2000, Paige showed Claire on the small tour and in open classes until the then pregnant Paige was three months away from having her daughter, Charlotte.

“But there was no question, right out of the gate, Claire was showing us what she had,” said her 37-year-old rider. The next year the two did the small tour to qualify for the nationals at the Gladstone (N.J.) Festival of Champions. That was a turning point for the pair.