Nicole's Charrie

[Nicole]

Claire LaCroix

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Introduction

My I introduce myself? I am Claire LaCroix. I am 29 years old. I have been riding for 26 years and consider myself an expert rider. I am a woman and I happen to find men attractive.

Mirror Reflections

She was born with her mother’s eyes, a heart-warming pair of brown eyes with an amber glow. Her hair is like her father’s, straight chestnut locks, Claire streaks her hair with small smatterings of blonde every other week and trims her bangs so that they are little wisps across her forehead and has taken to curling it ever so slightly so that it now has waves in it. Her hair comes to her upper back and when she ties it up it goes into a high ponytail, on occasions she expects a lot of work or for show she binds it into a French braid. Claire’s features are softly curving, giving her face a pleasant roundness to her cheek bones and chin. She has a button nose that she can wiggle for a joke and across it are faint little freckles. She is five feet four inches tall which she doesn’t think is short at all and even if it was, she’d stand just as tall. Her posture is straight, thanks in good part to her father in the saddle and her mother at the supper table. Weighing in at 127 pounds, she is mostly muscle. Her hands are steady and have a good grip, while her feet are small and even on level ground she finds herself tripping over herself occasionally, not the most graceful woman. Claire has wide hips and a small waist that curves upwards to her small chest, smaller than most men might like but just right for her.

Psychoanalyze Me

Claire is an open and energetic woman, always giving everything her all. She is always moving, always doing something, and on the rare occasion that she is doing nothing to your eyes, she is likely thinking and planning. Devoted to any task, she sticks with it and goes to see it through to the end. Claire has a competitive edge, is a problem-fixer, loves a good challenge and any and all games, especially if she wins. There is a tendency towards being argumentative in her nature, sticking to her guns and unwilling to move on a topic if she has her mind set solid on it. When she is around horses she is quiet and calm, as patient as a mother with her child, always reading a horse and asking what she knows is doable, just pushing the limits ever so slightly. Optimistic and friendly, she loves to chat and sometimes her mouth gets carried away with her, blabbing on about nothing in particular if she is among friends or greeting a new acquaintance. Maybe Claire isn’t the smartest person, or the best to get along as a bad mood may flare out of nowhere, but her devotion is well earned. She adores horses, for heaven’s sake she was practically born atop one! and takes all her training and experiences and holding them close to her heart applies those fitting her best to the life she lives in the here and now.

.:likes:. Chocolate, Horses, Dogs, Winning
.:dislikes:. Losing, Running Away, Being Looked Down on
.:weaknesses:. Eyes, Chocolate
.:strengths:. Eye for Potential, All Around Horsewoman
.:fears:. Being Shadowed, Not Making it to the Top, Being Alone

A Glimpse of Ages Past

The only daughter of three-day event rider and trainer Jean Michel LaCroix Jr. and Rolling R Ranch assistant manager Julie Roland, Claire was more of a love child than a true daughter. She was born April 7th, 1982, precisely one year after her parents married and two years after they had first met. She didn’t know just what kind of family she was being born into. Her father’s father, her grandfather Jean Michel LaCroix, a three-time French Olympic equestrian team alternate rider and later co-owner, though now he is dead, with his wife, her grandmother Danielle Stevens, of a small Standardbred breeding and racing farm while on her mother’s side was a now five-generation run Quarter horse stock and steer ranch, both her grandparents long dead but all her uncles: Peter, Matthew, Shawn, and Trevor Roland all well known to her. It only made sense that two people once attracted by their differences would be torn apart by those same differences and by the time Claire was five years old they were divorced and had shared joint custody. For most of the year she lived with her mother, home-schooled in between chores and training, both for horses and herself, leaving every two weekends to go from Montana to California for two days with her father. During the winter months, December and January, Claire stayed entirely with her father and was schooled in huntseat. It became obvious to her what was going on at an early age, that her parents both wanted their only child to follow after them and though she dearly loved them both and shared their love for horses, she was unable to ever make such a choice. By fifteen years old Claire had ridden in many youth eventing classes under the guidance of her father while natural horse training dominated her time with her mother. Claire found that there were aspects she liked from both and slowly developed her own style, taking the control and elegance of huntseat and pairing it with the relaxed nature and confidence of western, preferring natural training to harsh aides and the like. When the pressure to decide came upon her after taking her GED and SAT’s, Claire knew it was time to make her own way. She loved both her mother and father, but the insistence of her father and the seemingly indifference of her mother caused her to choose neither and instead departed to New York when she was eighteen years old to stay with her grandmother and go to college there. While earning her bachelor’s degree in animal husbandry, concentration in equine health and training, she learned about another aspect of the horse world that was in her blood: racing, in particular, harness racing. Standardbreds, her grandmother told her, are the choice breed for the ‘sport of kings’ and they are better than Thoroughbreds by far. This had made her laugh, because she knew now why her father hardly ever mentioned his mother, they obviously didn’t agree. Claire took part in helping at the farm and when her grandmother asked if she’d like a horse, she gave her granddaughter her choice of unraceable youngsters, those too slow or had been injured. It was a hard decision, but one thing she had learned from her life on a ranch was that a young horse often becomes your mount for life so it was best to make a good decision. For her life partner, as she called it, she chose a filly who would have only been used as a broodmare due to her good lines. Reverie’s Dream Catcher was a tall and sporty two year old with more energy than she knew what to do with. She began her training as if she were at the ranch and slowly added training from her father as she progressed. During this time she also acquired herself a dog, Corvin, a fetching gentleman of a Pembroke Welsh Corgi. Claire and ‘Ream’ took well to each other only because they had similar personalities. By the time she had graduated with her bachelor’s and begun showing in small lower level circuits, her grandmother was quite impressed, but Claire knew she couldn’t stay with her grandmother forever. Though she loved caring for horses, she could not bare to just breed horses if they could not race and she looked for a place where she could make a name for herself and emerge into the horse world with ‘Ream’. At twentyfive years old, she went to Chasing Hills, thinking the quiet place both comfortable and appropriate, a good place to start and try out her skills and perhaps find work. Claire has managed this rather well and has found her place as both a competitor and a trainer with Ream and her up and coming young stud Riddler. There are other things going on, some of which she is uncertain of and romance is on the top of her list. She took on the task of training some of the trouble horses and the yearlings when Chasing tried his hand at breeding. During this time Ream was accidentally bred and then purposefully covered later the same day. This took Claire’s top horse out of competition, but earned her a new one in recompense for the setback: Gunner, a 6 year old black Dutch Warmblood. Sadly later that year Ream died in her labors of delivering a stillborn foal which left Claire utterly heartbroken and torn. She lost the first horse she had ever trained and rode herself in the big circuits, but she also left the legacy of helping the Standardbred breed enter the show ring. She left, taking her stallion, Riddler, and her gelding, Gunner, back to New York when she received news that her grandmother was ill and needed help running her operation of Standardbred breeding and racing. While continuing to train riders at a nearby barn, train ex-race horses on her grandmother’s farm, and ride the big league three-day events on Gunner and the saddlehorse and gaited shows on Riddler, her grandmother passed away and she became the owner of FarAway Racing and Breeding. Claire had to accept other losses as well: the death of her dog, one of her uncles in Montana, and perhaps even one of her true loves whom she doesn’t even speak of. Up until now, Claire has been riding in so many circuits with Gunner that she made the long list for the Olympics and was two riders shy of the short list. With Riddler she took second in Nationals for breed at halter and first in equitation and pleasure. It is thought that she is at the height of her game even with all she has on her hands. Despite all of this, she is still drawn to the Hills where it all really began for her even if it does seem all so very long ago. Now with her star horses and a new one, Kleido, with the same lines as Ream, Claire is going to show the world that she has what it takes as an owner, trainer, and rider of equines and perhaps even breeder in the future.

A Horse’s Life

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Papered Information

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-Show Name: Riddle Me This
-Barn Name: Riddler
-Age: 6 years old
-Gender: Stallion
-Height: 16.1 hands
-Breed: National Show Horse
-Color: Chestnut

-Personality: He is smart, he is fast, and he is flashy. Riddler is everything that a show horse ought to be, especially when your breed is one. He has a mischievous streak, often finding ways to open fences, remove rails, and upturn buckets and heaven forbid this playful stud find anything he could swing around. And yet when he is put in a ring and has the bit in his mouth he becomes serious and sets right to work to please his rider with all the flash and bright personality that he contains. He is a proven performer having taken National titles as a Saddlehorse and is open to stud through AI by request only.

-Other: Markings include a star and a sock on the front left foot. He is a gaited horse and does tend towards the high flashy gaits and long strides as well as the stance, but that only adds to his appeal.
Lineage->
Dam: This Soft Heart (Arabian)
Granddam: Sweet Soft Touch Grandsire: Liscus Viscus


Sire: Twenty Questions (National Show Horse)
Granddam: Count the Stars Grandsire: Ask Away





Status: Active
Registered Name: Hotshot Shotgun - Known As: Gunner
Age: 9 years old - Sex: Gelding - Height: 16.3 hands
Breed: Dutch Warmblood - Color: Black - Discipline: Three-day Eventing
Personality: An extroverted horse by his display of energy and eagerness towards jumps, Gunner is one of those strange ones who goes between left and right brain thinking. He is all extension and reach all the time or at least as much as he is able to. This gelding spent a lot of time on cross-country courses and grand prix level jumper exercises and the more head he has the better ride he tends to be. Not that Gunner isn’t a good saddle horse in general, no horse looks more beautiful when he is collected, the problem is getting him to stay collected so his weak point is in dressage tests. Claire loves his energy, his desire to move and the beauty of his action. Because her strength is dressage he is the best horse for her, as well as his strengths in cross-country.
Lineage ->
Dam: Hot Stuph
Granddam: Hotter Than Thou Grandsire: Big Stuph

Sire: Shotgun Misery
Granddam: Sweet Misery Grandsire: Shotgun Outlaw



-Show Name: Kaleidoscope Dreamer
-Barn Name: Kleido
-Age: 4 years
-Gender: Mare
-Height: 16.1 hands
-Breed: Standardbred
-Color: Blood Bay

-Personality: Kleido is a very quiet mare, having been a racehorse of sorts has made her accustomed to a variety of situations and there are few things that frighten her. She trailers, handles, and stands well. Her extent of training in harness was rather extensive and she trotted all the way from 2-year old races to 3-year old races before her poor scores took her out of the running. She has a double dose of the ‘Ima’ lines which allows for excellent conformation, good speed, and amazing temperament which is why she was one of those chosen to be retrained as a saddle horse, also because her lineage is the closest to another horse which made it past the track to the show ring. Kleido is just starting out in green horse classes and shows a lot of promise with her athletics and good attitude.

-Other: Markings include freeze brand on upper right side of neck with last four digits of her register number (7632), usually covered by her mane, and upper lip tattoo with full register number (09557632). She has no other markings on her other than her freezebrand.
Lineage->
Dam: ImaDreamer
Granddam: Sweet Dreams Grandsire: ImaGonnaGetYou

Sire: Rainbow Vision
Granddam: Color Me Pretty Grandsire: ImaLooker


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