Congratulations Mette & Taison!!

Taison tied for #1 as the United States Dressage Federation Training Level Horse of the Year for 2005--out of a field of 688 horses!!

Report on the Klaus Balkenhol Clinic

Mette was selected for the closed clinic given by Klaus Balkenhol, who was in town as the primary speaker for the U.S. Dressage Federation Convention in Burbank. The clinic was held on November 29th & 30th at Brookside Equestrian Center owned by Keith Walton. Mette had two great days in the clinic with Basquewille, which she enjoyed very much. The first day she rode in lesosn and worked on things she felt were important. She found the clinic to be very helpful and changed a lot in the way she rode and approached riding. The second day, she was fortunate enough to have Klaus ride Basquewille, which was a real treat since he is such an excellent rider.

Klaus reinforced for Mette that there is no magic or secret answer. You have to stick with the basics and take a clean and clear approach with the horse. Mette says “it is important that the horse is waiting for you as the rider and becomes obedient because of correct horsemanship.” Mette adds that Klaus “also stressed for every rider to ride with soft hands and not choking the horse.” You could hear Klaus telling his students all day long to “soften hands and give reins.”

Mette also brought her new horse Logan to the clinic to get him out and see how he would react to a new place. Klaus saw Logan from a distance and let Mette know that he liked him. Mette says, “Hopefully I will have a chance to ride with him when he returns in February. I also hope to train with him in Germany one day.”

DressageClinic.com DVD

Mette will soon have a DVD available in tack shops nationwide. Mette's informative DVD will make a great holiday gift for riders. The DVD is published by DressageClinic.com and features her 2005 Training Level Horse of the Year, Taison.

Mette was filmed in five additional sessions over Thanksgiving weekend for other DressageClinic.com videos. Mette rode in four sessions on Basquewille, Logan, Rockefeller and Taison. She was also filmed teaching one of her working students, Lindsay Smith, on Edelweiss, Cory Walkey's stallion. Mette hopes that one or more of these videos will be of high enough quaility to also be selected for the DVD market.

U.S. Dressage Federation Horse of the Year Final Standings:

Mette's horse, Taison, tied for first as the United States Dressage Federation Training Level Dressage Horse of the Year for 2005. There were 688 horses in this division! He was also ranked 19th out of 560 horses at First Level.

Basquewille is the #17 USDF Grand Prix Dressage Horse of the Year for 2005 (135 competitors); Baldwin finished as the the #55 Prix St. George USDF Horse of the Year (363 competitors) and #12 at Intermediare I (219 competitors).

Report on the CDS Championships in Rancho Murieta:

Mette had to overcome a number of obstacles, but ended up with quite a successful showing at the recent California Dressage Society Championships in October. The first incident occurred a couple of weeks before the event while she was conditioning one of her youngsters in the Topanga hills. The horse spooked, fell on his nose and then on top of Mette. She ended up with a cracked rib and an injured foot. Due to her injuries, she wasn’t able to prepare as much as she normally would for such an event.

The next blow came when Taison, who is tied for the number one Training Level horse in the nation, came down with a mysterious bacterial infection, which the vet was never able to diagnose. Taison is doing much better, though still has a long recovery road to regain his former fitness. Mette was not able to bring Taison to the championships as a result and regrets that she did not have a chance to break that U.S.D.F. Training Horse of the Year first place tie!

The problems didn’t end at home. Mette decided to bring Basquewille and Baldwin to the show and on the drive to the championships, something happened in the trailer. Mette believes that Basquewille pulled back and sat down, because she found the tail wrap unhooked. Basquewille injured his leg, so Mette stopped at a gas station and doctored his leg as best she could. When she arrived in Rancho Murieta, Mette and her groom Sofia, iced his leg and walked him to reduce the swelling. Mette rode him lightly and saw that the swelling went down when he moved. He was not lame, so Mette decided to go ahead and show him. Mette feels that she rode him very tentatively because she was afraid she would hurt him if she pushed him too hard. Even so, Mette rode Basquewille to Reserve Champion in both of his Grand Prix classes. Mette and Baldwin also did extremely well in his very large classes.