What happened to Totalis?

If you are familiar with the Dressage world, you know his name. Moorlands Totalis, arguably the best dressage horse to ever walk this face of the earth, and we get to watch him compete. Totalis was originally bred in the Netherlands. In 2005 he was ridden as a five year old in the 2005 World Breeding Championships for Young Horses and placed 4th. Also at this time, the breeders of Totilas


Jiska Van Akker and Totalis in 2005

called a dressage rider named Edward Gal, who then was not a well known dressage rider, and asked him if he would be willing to ride "Toto". He agreed and the pair started to work together in 2006.

They could tell that this horse was something spectacular. Edward Gal and his 17.1hh black stallion dominatated the International Dressage ring, and in July of 2009, the team broke famed vetran rider Anky Van Gruvensen's world record for the Grand Prix Freestyle by scoring an 89.50% and they broke that record again while competing at the 2009-2010 Dressage series in London with a 92.3%. After he won the three available gold medals at WEG in 2010, they decided to sell Totalis.



Edward Gal and "Toto" at WEG 2010

He was sold for what was guessed at between 12 and 18 million dollars to a German rider named Mathias Rath. Dutch riders were outraged, considering German riders and Dutch riders are rivals and have been bitter towards each other after the Netherlands replaced Germany as the top country competing in Dressage. This gave Germany an advantage over the Dutch team by having such an outstanding horse. However, that was not the case at all.



Mathias Rath rides much differently than Edward Gal. The team of Ruth and Totalis got scores that were less than perfect, recieving lower scores on the stallion, and becoming a nervous young stallion who wasn't being communicated with clearly, rather than the stunning, well behaved stallion we all grew to love. Of course, this horse sill qualified for the Olympics for Germany this year in London, but was pulled out due to Rath being sick. What will happen to this world shaking Dressage horse? Well, who knows.