A native of USDF Region 6, Claire is a the winner of the 2022 Markel/USEF Developing Horse Grand Prix National Championship. She is also a United States Dressage Federation Gold, Silver and Bronze Medalist with Distinction, recipient of the USDF Gold, Silver and Bronze Freestyle Bar, USDF Horse of the Year award winner, and has competed in a total of 12 USEF National Championships, including the 2011 Pan American Games Selection Trials.
Claire completed both her undergraduate and graduate studies at Baylor University, receiving her Bachelor of Business Administration, Marketing, in 2009 and her Master's of Science in Education, Sport Management, in 2011. Claire has been riding and training full-time since graduation, starting with several years operating her own business in Central Texas. She relocated to the West Coast in 2014, riding in Southern California for two years before moving north to beautiful Washington, where she worked at both a private facility and a successful sales barn, before returning to the Southern California in Spring 2019. She now operates a full-service training and sales barn in Wellington, Florida. Born in Idaho, Claire began riding at the age of 2, and was riding dressage movements on her pony, Daisy, at the same time she was learning to read and write. Earning her Bronze Medal at age 13 and her Silver Medal at age 15, Claire has successfully competed numerous horses at the FEI levels. In 2016, she earned her Gold Medal and Gold Freestyle Bar on her own Calimar, whom she has owned since he was a yearling.
With her Grand Prix horse, Harrold S, Claire won the 2022 Developing Grand Prix National Championship. Harrold has won multiple USDF Horse of the Year titles, including 2022 Intermediate 2 Horse of the Year with a median score of 71.5%, 2019 Fourth Level Horse of the Year with a median score of over 75%, 2017 Training Level and Materiale Horse of the Year with median scores over 82%, in addition to 2017 Reserve Champion at First Level with a median score over 79%. The combination is now competing successfully in the International Grand Prix, where they ranked in the top-80 in the FEI World Rankings in their debut season. Claire has added two exciting young horses from the same dam as Harrold to her lineup: 2017 KWPN gelding Matthew S by Geniaal, and 2019 KWPN gelding Odilon Sollenburg by In Style. Both are showing tremendous promise for the upper levels with their outstanding gaits and top rideability. Claire teaches the classical training scale through positive reinforcement, which she learned from her mother, USEF 'S' Dressage Judge, Joan Darnell, and is evident in both the performance and attitude of all her horses and riders in training.