This is the June - December 2006 Archive

Other Archives:
2005 Archive
January - May 2006 Archive
2007 Archive

December 2006 News

Mette's horse Rockefeller (left) received the 2nd highest score in the lower divisions at the Dressage Holiday Special at LAEC (74.000%)!

See the complete results from this show for Rockefeller and Taison on the results page.

November 2006 News:

The United States Dressage Federation Horse of the Year standings are final and Mette's horeses are placed well in the standings. Basquewille is the #22 Grand Prix horse in the nation. Edelweiss de Bonce, owned by Cory Walkey, is #24 at the Prix St. Georges level (out of 386 horses) and #55 at the Intermediare I level. Congratulations Mette!

Basquewille also won the USDF Grand Prix All-Breed award for NADWA (North American Danish Warmblood Association) for 2006, as well as the Adequan USDF 2006 All Breed Award for Open 1st Place Grand Prix!

October 2006 News:

10/23/06

My horse Donatello, who's still in Sweden came in 3rd at the Swedish championship for 4 year olds. He is ridden by Minna Telde. In the first qualifier he came in first. In the semi, it was about 50 horses and he was second. The best go to the finals and he ended up 3rd total. One of the judges was American O judge, Linda Zang. I bought Donatello when he was 6 months old and I'm very proud of him and his rider Minna. The sire of Donatello is Don Shufro, ridden by AndreasHelgstrand. Don Shufro won a big CDI in AAhus last weekend. Hoping Donatello will be there as well one day!

10/18/06

Mette and Basquewille were invited to ride in the $25,000 Grand Prix at the Washington International Horse Show at the end of October! Sadly, Mette was unable to find a flight for Basquewille on such short notice, but she feels very honored to have received the invitation.

10/17/06

Mette just received a horse from Andreas Stano, owner and creator of DressageClinic.com. The horse is Sensation, a 6-year old very green, but very sweet gelding. Mette will train the horse over the next few months and every few weeks, DressageClinic.com will film the horse’s progress and post it on their website. Mette is looking forward to this new project.

10/15/06

Mette & Basquewille for winning the Great American USDF Grand Prix Regional Championships & Reserve Champion in the $1,000 Grand Prix CDS Horse of the Year. The Great American USDF/Region 7 Championships and 39th Annual CDS Championships were held at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center October 5 - 8. Mette feels that Basquewille was better in the CDS HOY class and that she rode better, too. She felt she "held the first place in her hands," but then made two errors when the coefficient was worth double and that's what cost her the championship. Nonetheless, these are great accomplishments! Congratulations Mette! Vist the Results page for her scores. Mette also qualified Edelweiss de Bonce for the Championships in both Prix St. George and Intermediare I, but due to a minor injury, he could not compete that weekend.

September 2006 News:

Shira Ron-Rossin joins Mette as a working student. Read more about her on the Working Students page.

August 2006 News:

Mette went on a horse buying trip to Sweden, Holland and Denmark in August for 10 days looking for horses for herself and for her clients. She discovered that it is difficult to find horses with the quality and rideability she is seeking. She estimates that out of the 35 horses she rode only five were of a caliber she would seriously consider. Mette hopes to make another trip in the near future.

Mette is featured in an artilce in the August/September issue of the Equestrian News. Click here to read the article!

July 2006 News:

Mette welcomes Heritage Performance Riding Gloves as her newest sponsor!

"I love Heritage Gloves for both riding at home and at shows. They make a terrific product."

Read more about Heritage Gloves on the Sponsors page.

Meet Mette's Working Students: Viktoria Alfhors from Sweden (left) and Lisa Hathaway from Seattle, Washington (pictured with Rockefeller).

Mette has another working student coming from Israel next month. Mette feels very honored that so many students are willing to travel from around the world to work and train with her.

June 2006 News :

Mette's Story about her Gladstone Championship Experience:
(See photos from the Show)

It was fun journey to try out and make it to Gladstone. I worked hard and I had a lot of good help from Debbie McDonald and Cory Walkey. I competed in a couple of shows in California: some CDI shows and some normal shows with High Performance classes. I think my horses did great. This was the first time that I tried out for the championship so maybe I could have done it a little bit different if I would have known how the whole thing would come out. Basquewille made it in Grand Prix and I almost made it in Intermediare I with Edelweiss. He was 13 th on the list and a couple of horses that passed me at the end, I think I could have been ahead of them, but unfortunately that didn’t work out. So I did go with Basquewille.

We left on Friday, June 9. We flew out of Los Angeles with FedEx and then arrived at Gladstone the same day. The trip went well. The first couple of days it was fun to be there, because we saw the place from the beginning when no rings were set up and everyday more horses came and more people came. It was a very good and fun experience.

The show started on Thursday and the vet check was on Wednesday. The first couple of days Basquewille was great and felt strong and my training went well and I was really ready to go for it. Unfortunately he got sick and it started because he didn’t want to eat the hay and didn’t drink. And then, I think it was Tuesday, the humidity got worse, so he really needed the water. He got very dehydrated so had tendency to colic and he just didn’t feel well. When the jog out came up on Wednesday, I only had him on fluid--I think he got 20 liters that day. I really tried to help him as best I could. The starting time was on Thursday and on that day, unfortunately, I made a big mistake myself and then he didn’t really feel as good as he could. After that he got better and better and I really wish that he could have been as good on Thursday as he was on Friday and Sunday, because then I would have had a chance to be maybe in the top six.

The whole week in Gladstone was phenomenal. The people were very friendly and I had a great time. It was fun for me to get to know riders from the East Coast, as well. Debbie was there to help me warm up. She did a great job and I was very happy with that. We were supposed to leave on Monday from the beginning, but we ended up having to leave on Tuesday, so I felt that we’d been gone forever. It was a fun experience and I would try to do it again. Now I know more so I can prepare better with the shows and pick the best shows to go to. You learn from your mistakes. This coming year, 2007, I will try out for Gladstone and the finals there. I know that the Pan Am games are coming up and I will try to get a spot on the team that goes to Rio de Janeiro.

Best of all, I was very happy that my mother Gertrud, my sister Elisabeth and my brother-in-law Göran Odin took their time and all the effort to make their trip to come out and see me compete in this big event. They flew from Sweden all the way to Newark, New Jersey. They just came out for Friday, Saturday and Sunday and cheered me on. It was fun for me to know they were there. I don’t think they’ve seen me compete since I left Sweden 20 years ago, so for me to have them around was a wonderful feeling and I know that they had a great time. I just wanted to say thank you Mom, Elisabeth and Göran for taking your time and making a big effort to cheer me on!!

Mette's Results from Gladstone:

Combined Results (Grand Prix, Grand Prix Special, Grand Prix Freesytle) (pdf file)
Grand Prix Freestyle results (pdf file)