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Birgitta Bergsten visits Mette for the Second time this Year

Birgitta Bergsten came from Sweden to work with Mette for the second time this year from June 23 – June 30. This was Birgitta’s first time working with Mette on Finn and she had many wonderful things to say about Finn. Birgitta feels that Finn is a very nice horse with lots of talent, good paces, long legs and a beautiful face and good looking overall; he is tall but light. Birgitta noted that Mette has always had good horses, but that she has always been more talented than her horses—now she has a horse the suits her well and has the same talent level. “This horse can really be something good with Mette. We are both very excited over the horse. It will be a lot of work, but he is willing and tries hard. This is the horse we have both dreamt about for a long time.”

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 Donnatello 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!