- Moorlands Totilas
-
Moorlands Totilas 
Breed Dutch Warmblood (KWPN) Sire Gribaldi (Trakehner) Dam Lominka (KWPN) Damsire Glendale (KWPN) Sex Stallion Foaled 2000 Country 
NetherlandsColour Black Breeder J.K.Schuil & A. Visser Owner Paul Schockemöhle, Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff Medal record Competitor for NetherlandsEquestrian World Championships Gold 2010 Lexington Team Dressage Gold 2010 Lexington Individual special dressage Gold 2010 Lexington Individual freestyle dressage European Championships Gold 2009 Windsor Team Dressage Gold 2009 Windsor Individual freestyle dressage Silver 2009 Windsor Individual special dressage Totilas, also known from 2006-2011 as Moorlands Totilas, and nicknamed "Toto", is a Dutch Warmblood stallion standing 17.1 hands (69 inches, 175 cm) high[1] who is considered to be one of the most outstanding competitive dressage horses in the world, the first horse to score above 90 in dressage competition,[2] and the current holder of the world record for the highest dressage score in Grand Prix Freestyle Dressage. Going into the 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games (WEG), Moorlands Totilas and his rider, Edward Gal, had amassed multiple world-record scores in international competition, leading one American journalist to call them "rock stars in the horse world".[3]
Contents
Show career
Totilas was bred by Jan K. Schuil and Anna Schuil-Visser in Broeksterwâld (Broeksterwoude) in the Netherlands. They gave him his basic training. Upon entering major competition at age five, he was ridden by Jiska van den Akker and exhibited at the 2005 World Breeding Championships for Young Horses at Verden, Germany. There he distinguished himself as the best horse from the Netherlands, and placed fourth in the final ranking of five year old dressage horses.[4][5] Also in 2005, his owners contacted Edward Gal and asked him to ride and compete Totilas.[6] In 2006, after Gal began working with the horse, his sponsors Cees (also spelled Kees) and Tosca Visser purchased Totilas in the name of their investment company, Moorland BV.[6][1][7]After this purchase the horse competed under the name "Moorlands Totilas."
Totilas was ridden throughout most of his international Grand Prix career by Gal, under the flag of the Netherlands. Gal first began working with Toto in 2006 and the pair started to compete in 2008. Gal and the team of people who worked with the horse understood that Toto was "something special" after their first Grand Prix (GP) competition,[3] with Gal later stating, "He has an incredible amount of talent; it’s simply a pleasure to ride him."[1]
In July 2009, Gal and Toto broke Anky van Grunsven's world record score in Grand Prix Freestyle[8] with an 89.50% mark at Hickstead, England, and shortly thereafter followed it up breaking their own record with a score of 90.75% at the 2009 FEI European Jumping and Dressage Championships.[9] In December 2009, at the fourth leg of the 2009–10 FEI World Cup Dressage series at Olympia in London, they extended their record in GP Freestyle to 92.30%, more than 10 points above the second-place finisher.[9] They won that season's FEI World Cup final with a win in GP Freestyle at home in the Netherlands, winning by more than 7 points with a score better than their first world record.[10] The pair also have a world-record score in the Grand Prix Special discipline to their credit, having recorded 86.460% at Aachen in July 2010.[11][8]
The horse is not free of controversy. Critics claim his extravagant natural paces are artificially inflating dressage scores and corrupting the fundamentals of the sport. One German equestrian magazine compared his performances to those in a circus.[12][13] However, the head of the World Cup judging panel at the Olympia competition in London dismissed such criticism, saying, “People should be big enough to recognise brilliance when they see it."[13] While some give primary credit to the skill of Edward Gal as the primary reason the horse has reached such a high level at a relatively young age for a dressage horse,[3] and at least one writer has wondered if Toto's success is because he is a Gemini,[12] Anne Gribbons, dressage technical adviser for the United States Equestrian Federation, assesses the horse as having simply taken the sport to a new level: "He is capable of such power and balance while he's in motion that it is almost beyond what most other horses can do."[3]
The pair were triple gold medalists at the 2010 FEI World Equestrian Games,[11][14] becoming the first horse-rider partnership ever to sweep the three available dressage gold medals at a single FEI World Games.[11]
Breeding status and sale
Moorlands Totilas was approved for breeding by the KWPN in 2009,[15] and stood at stud in 2010 for a stud fee of €5500,[6][2] or about $7,000 (US), considered a very high fee for a warmblood stallion.[7] A total of 175 mares were approved for the stallion, including US Olympic medal-winner Brentina.[2] His first year at stud generated fees of nearly €1.4 million.[16][2] In September 2010, an embryo by Totilas sold for €32,000.[6] His first foal, a seal brown-colored filly named Moorlands Guinevere, was foaled January 23, 2011 in Utrecht, Netherlands.[17]
In October of 2010, it was announced that sport horse breeder Paul Schockemöhle had purchased Moorlands Totilas.[6] The sale price was not disclosed,[18] but rumors have circulated that the price was in the range of €9.5 million[2] to as high as €15 million.[16] At the World Equestrian Games, Edward Gal strongly denied that the horse was for sale, but his owners stated that after his wins at the WEG, "we could no longer ignore the interest in the stallion."[6] Though the official press release stated the Gal "understood" the Vissers' decision,[6] other news sources quoted him as stating, ""I'm absolutely devastated...It's like I'm struck by lightning."[16]
The news sent considerable shockwaves thought the dressage community, with the Dutch national dressage team expressing intense disappointment that their Olympic hopes had been shattered with the horse being sold to an individual from the nation that is their closest rival, Germany. Dutch team trainer Sjef Janssen described the sale as "a huge blood-letting" for the team,[19] expressing concerns that the horse will perform for Germany in the 2012 Olympics."[16] The online community was also set abuzz, and the Eurodressage web site crashed due to an overload of visitors.[16] Comment included heated criticism of Anky van Grunsven from Gal's business partner Nicole Werner for posting the news via Twitter prior to the official news release, and a resulting public exchange between the two camps on Facebook.[20] The Vissers have stated that they will continue to make promising and talented horses available to Gal.[21]
German ownership
In March of 2011, Schockemöhle changed the horse's show name with the FEI to "Totilas"[22]. Schockemöhle together with promoter Michael Mronz will be marketing the horse under that name.[23][24] Schockemöhle and co-owner Ann-Kathrin Linsenhoff selected Matthias Alexander Rath, a 26 year old German rider and stepson of Linsenhoff, to be the new rider of Totilas. The stated goal is for the pair to be on the German team for the European Dressage Championships to be held in Rotterdam in August 2011.[17]
In November, 2010, Totilas and Rath had a public appearence in Mühlen, Germany, at Schockemöhle's stallion station. In full show gear, the 26-year old Rath sat on Totilas for the sixth time and rode the Dutch warmblood stallion in Schockemöhle's indoor arena to the music of Era's Ameno. After this brief session and a photo opportunity for the press, Paul Schockemöhle, Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff, Klaus Martin Rath, Matthias Rath and Sönke Lauterbach (secretary general of the German Equestrian Federation) took a seat for a public statement and a question round. Linsenhoff stated that having Totilas in Germany is significant for the German dressage team and the future of the sport. "This horse is important for our breeding and for our sport. I’m proud that our son has been asked. We hope they will come to a harmony," she said. " It’s a wonderful horse. With so much potential, such shoulder freedom, beauty, and presence. It’s unbelievable. I'm sure you all will agree with me on that point."[25]
Pedigree
Moorlands Totilas is sired by a Trakehner stallion, Gribaldi that was approved by KWPN, the Dutch Warmblood registry, and noted for elegance and refinement.[15] Gribaldi had also been shown at the Grand Prix level by Edward Gal.[12] Toto's dam, Lominka, a KWPN approved Dutch Warmblood, comes from bloodlines that have produced both show jumping and dressage horses, many of whom were noted for good temperament.[15][12]
Enrico Caruso
(Trakehner)Kostolany
(Trakehner)Kapstadt
(Trakehner)Gribaldi
(Trakehner)Ibikus
(Trakehner)Gondola III
(Trakehner)Gloria VI
(Trakehner)Moorlands Totilas Nimmerdor
(KWPN)Glendale
(KWPN)Silja
(KWPN)Lominka (KWPN) Akteur
(Groningen (NWP))Elsa
(KWPN)Wominka
(KWPN)References
- ^ a b c "Moorlands Totilas".Edward Gal.com Accessed 2010-10-17
- ^ a b c d e "Totilas sold to Paul Schockemöhle of Germany." Dressage News.com accessed 2010-10-17
- ^ a b c d Cengel, Katya (26 September 2010). "Dutch pair setting pace for dressage competition at World Equestrian Games". The Courier-Journal. http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2010309260052. Retrieved 27 September 2010.[dead link]
- ^ 2005 World Championships for Young Dressage Horses: Total Pleasure with Totilas, eurodressage.com, July 4, 2005
- ^ “Om de Trakehner te eren” (Dutch article about Totilas and his breeders)
- ^ a b c d e f g "Dressage sensation Totilas sold to Paul Schockemohle". horseandhound.co.uk. 14 Oct 2010. http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/397/302861.html. Retrieved 14 October 2010.
- ^ a b Beatty, Sarah. "Totilas Will Stand At Stud In 2010" Chronicle of the Horse, 2010-02-02, accessed 2010-10-17
- ^ a b "Search Centre: Results by Competitor". International Federation for Equestrian Sports. http://search.fei.org/Search_Centre/Result/Pages/CompetitionSearch.aspx. Retrieved 30 September 2010. Search fields: Competitor = Gal, Administering NF (National Federation) = NED (Netherlands), Gender=Male
- ^ a b "Edward Gal and Moorlands Totilas Set New Dressage World Record" (Press release). International Federation for Equestrian Sports. 18 December 2009. http://www.horsechannel.com/horse-news/2009/12/18/gal-totilas-dressage-record.aspx. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
- ^ Cuckson, Pippa (27 March 2010). "Edward Gal and Moorlands Totilas win FEI World Cup dressage final". Telegraph.co.uk. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/equestrianism/7530954/Edward-Gal-and-Moorlands-Totilas-win-FEI-World-Cup-dressage-final.html. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
- ^ a b c "Gal and Totilas Win the Special in Style – Can They Make It a Hat-Trick of Gold?" (Press release). International Federation for Equestrian Sports. 29 September 2010. http://www.fei.org/events/games/fei-world-equestrian-games/press-releases/alltech-fei-world-equestrian-games™-day-5-dre. Retrieved 30 September 2010.
- ^ a b c d Battram, Simon. "The magic of Moorlands Totilas" Stepintodressae.com, accessed 2010-10-18
- ^ a b Cuckson, Pippa (16 December 2009). "Edward Gal and Moorlands Totilas break record in Olympia’s World Cup dressage". Telegraph.co.uk. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/equestrianism/6829867/Edward-Gal-and-Moorlands-Totilas-break-record-in-Olympias-World-Cup-dressage.html. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
- ^ "Gal and Totilas Make It a Golden Hat-Trick on a Night to Remember" (Press release). International Federation for Equestrian Sports. 1 October 2010. http://www.fei.org/events/games/fei-world-equestrian-games/press-releases/alltech-fei-world-equestrian-games™-day-7-dre. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
- ^ a b c d "Dressage Super Sires Moorlands Totilas Gribaldi and Kostolany at the helm!" Accessed October 17, 2010
- ^ a b c d e "Sale Totilas Causes Shock Wave and Online Webquake" Eurodressage.com 2010-10-14, accessed 2010-10-17
- ^ a b "Totilas 1st Foal Born" Dressage News.com. January 23, 2011. Accessed January 28, 2011
- ^ "SOLD:Moorland Totilas" Eventing Nation, Accessed October 17, 2010
- ^ "Dutch Equestrian Federation Mourns Sale of Totilas" Eurodressage.com 2010-10-14, accessed 2010-10-17
- ^ "Heated Emotions on Facebook Due to Shocking Sale Totilas" Eurodressage.com 2010-10-14, accessed 2010-10-17
- ^ "Totilas Sold to Paul Schockemohle" Eurodressage.com 2010-10-14, accessed 2010-10-17
- ^ FEI Horse Detail: Totilas
- ^ Paul Schockemöhle: Breeding stallions
- ^ Totilas auf Kaffeetassen: Dressurpferd soll Kasse machen (German)
- ^ Matthias Rath Presents New Ride, Totilas, to the Press, eurodressage.com, November 30, 2010
- ^ Pedigree of Moorlands Totilas
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