Finally!!

After looking for a very long time, I have finally found another horse! I spent so MANY hours, took trips all over the world and sought the assistance of so many helpful people without success; I was almost ready to give up. I heard about this horse through my friend Stefan Wolf here in California, so it is thanks to him that I found my new horse, who I have appropriately named Finally! Finn, for short, is an 8-year-old Hanoverian gelding, born in Germany and sired by De Niro. I am very happy to have found him and I’m looking forward to the journey together with him. It will be great!

I want to thank everybody who worked so hard to help me find the horse I wanted. I really do appreciate everything that you all did for me and one day it will pay off. I also want to send a special thanks to Patrick Schutte in Holland who spent days with me over many visits. I would also like to thank Gert Jan van Olst.

So this is the reason why I have not competed very much this spring-- I have been traveling a lot to find a new horse. And now I am excited about my great string of horses and for our future together. My next show will be at Flintridge the last weekend in May. I will ride Taison in Intermediarre I and in the Developing horse class. This will be his second qualifier; I really hope he will do well, so we can go to the finals. I will also be taking Rockefeller and Donatello inThird Level and my student, Anna, will ride my beloved Basquewille in Prix St. Georges. I will be bringing a total of 11 horses to the show and I hope all will do well.

In April, I went to the Mane Event in Canada for three days. I gave a lecture and taught different levels of riders in a clinic. It was more for the audience than the riders, but it all turned out more than great. There were tons of people at each session and the Canadians were super eager to learn and very interested. The riders did a great job of showing what dressage is all about. I just feel sorry I could not help them more with their own riding. Hopefully I will have a chance to go back and give more to the riders. For all of you who rode: You all did a great job!

Thanks!

Rockefeller wins with 72%

This time it was Rockefeller who won and was my highest scoring horse at the 2009 Flintridge Dressage Show, May 22-24. In second place was Donatello with 70%; he put in a great test as well. They both went Third Level and I was very proud of them.

Taison was great in Intermediare I, but was a little bit tired in the Developing Class. We warmed up too long in the very warm weather, so he did not feel as good as he did in San Diego. He is still very powerful and obedient, but to win you have to be spectacular.

Basquewille, with Anna Dahlberg, was happy to be showing again. He was so good and Anna did a great job. It was run for both of them.
All of the horses and students who went to the show did great and we all had a good time.

The next time out will be in Pebble Beach the first week of July. Maybe I will bring Finally??

Before that Debbie Mc Donald will be back and help me and I also will have Birgitta Bergsten from Sweden fly out to L.A. again this year to drill me from the judge’s point of view. Both of them are so good and very helpful to me. I'm very appreciative that they take their time to help me. I love it!

Keep up all the hard work and good luck.

-Mette