86 SIDELINES FEBRUARY 2014
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
World Cup qualifier, and later jumped a clear round in the Nations’
Cup final in Madrid. At the height of his career, he was about
number 59 on the world ranking list for horses. “CEO’s modest
success makes me as proud as any of The Natural’s achievements
and it was a real mother-daughter-horse love story,” admitted
Alice.
Meanwhile, Alice participated in International Student Riding.
She took an organized trip to Belgium, another to Egypt where
she won, showing great skill on borrowed horses, so that the
judges invited her to a friendly professional jumper competition
in Cairo two weeks later. That led to a job in Germany, which
started in July 1995. On her way back to the United States, Alice
met her future husband, Remi Clero, while switching planes in
Amsterdam. They fell in love, but Alice was determined to try the
job in Germany for a year, and Remi didn’t try to stop her. Alice
moved CEO, Crackerjack, her dog, her possessions and gave
away her business.
“I hated the job. I didn’t like who I was working for,” Alice said.
“The people who rented me a room were still angry about the
war. Crackerjack was fine, but CEO was rotting away as a five-
year-old. Even my dog was unhappy.” A marriage proposal from
Remi spurred Alice to return to the U.S. with horses, dog and
possessions. They eloped, opting to buy a house instead of a
huge wedding for all their relatives.
“Remi had never touched a horse before he met me and he
embraced my horse life style very quickly,” Alice explained.
“He was there with CEO and Crackerjack at the unrecognized
shows at 1-meter high, all the way to the 5-star circuit in Aachen,
Cannes, Rome, La Baule, etc. After two years of marriage Remi,
an aerospace engineer, was head-hunted out of Pepsi and hired
to run Paco Rabanne. He was excited to be CEO of a large
company, and a European show jumping career sounded great to
me. We moved to Paris in 1997.”
Children & Careers
After the birth of their first child in 1999, Alice went on the
Sunshine Tour in Spain and became acquainted with another
jumper rider, HRH Princess Haya of Jordan. “At the end of the
tour, Princess Haya asked Katie if she could work with her,” Alice
recalled. “Katie was very busy with another client and suggested
that Princess Haya work with me in Paris until Katie’s prior
contract was over. Haya knew me well already and how I worked
and trained from spending six weeks together in Spain.”
Princess Haya and Alice clicked right away, both professionally
and personally. “Princess Haya was so down to earth, we became
great friends,” Alice said. “She was very gifted, actually, and
while we were at the 5-star San Patrignano horse show in Italy,
I explained a concept to her on Saturday of the show. She got it
immediately and jumped a meter-50 course clear. I allowed her to
go in the grand prix – she had never done a meter-60 class – she
jumped clear, and it earned her a very unexpected invitation to
the Sydney Olympics in just a few months time. Katie and Henri
met us there and we trained her together. When Sydney was over,
Katie wanted her to come to Florida, but Princess Haya wasn’t
ready to spend all that time away from Europe and the Middle
East. She decided to stay with me and qualified one year early
for the WEG, but eventually she moved on and married Sheik
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. She has been president of
the FEI, a mother of two, and an extremely popular First Lady of
Dubai. She is truly an extraordinary woman and I am honored to
The Dubai Show Jumping Team: (left to right) Mohammed Ketait, Arif Ahmed, Ahmed Falaknaz, Alice, Omar Khoory, groom Nassar
Mohammed and Abdulla Al Marri.
