For the Flintridge show over Memorial weekend, Mette brought 4 of her horses, plus 5 or 6 of her clients and their horses also went. There were about 10 horses leaving from Mill Creek and everyone was excited. The window for high performance shows in California is much smaller than the window on the East Coast. They start in December and finish up the last CDI first weekend in June. Because there are fewer CDI shows in California due to the shorter season, Mette needed this show. But this season has been hard to get going overall and unfortunately the weather wasn’t on Mette’s side for the Flintridge show. Memorial Day weekend at Flintridge started out perfectly and then the hail, rain, thunder and lightening broke loose. The stalls and rings were flooded and everything was miserable (see the photo of Toni Hubenette below in the flooded ring at Flintridge). The weirdest part about it was that if you came back to Mill Creek, the weather was fine, so the storm was very localized. Mette stayed with her horses that night from Thursday to Friday and on Friday, the main ring for her classes was closed. Some of her clients stayed because they needed qualifying scores, but Mette decided there was no reason for her to show her other horses under these conditions and brought them home on Friday. Mette noted that in her 20 years competing at Flintridge, the problem had always been that the weather was too hot (add in fact the weather the previous weekend was over 100 degrees), so this unseasonal storm was a big surprise and disappointment.Mette’s next show will be in Pebble Beach on the first weekend in July. She’ll take Basquewille in Grand Prix and Taison in the Developing Horses division. It’s the last chance of the season to qualify Taison for the Developing Horses finals in September. She will also bring Donatello and Rockefeller, so Mette is really looking forward to this show.
