Please accept my apology if you are not as nutty about Dressage as I am, but if you watch the video (one of dozens on the internet about this horse) you will surely agree with me that this horse deserves to be nominated for unicornhood. Moorlands Totilas and his rider Edward Gal led the Dutch team at the World Equestrian Games at the Kentucky Horse Park in October, 2010. They took away three gold medals and recieved the highest scores in Dressage History. They amased an unparalleled number of perfect 10's. In fact, during Toto's eighteen month career showing at Grand Prix they won nearly every test they entered.
Totilas was owned by Cees Viser. He is by Gribaldi and is half Trakehner. The fabulous black stallion was first put under saddle at the age of five (race horse owners take note!) and was trained exclusively by Edward Gal for the next five years until his unprecidented performance in Kentucky...his first overseas trip. Gal said in an article in the December addition of Dressage Today (my second favorite magazine) that he has never ridden a horse that can compare to Toto. He has so much power and energy but is also supple. His attitude is different, too. He responds instantly and gives all he has and everything is easy for him.
Gal kept Totilas on a strict training schedule. His day started with feeding at 7:30. He rode him at 9:00 for 1/2 hour to 3/4 hour. Then he was given lunch. He was put on the walker at 2 in the afternoon for 45 minutes. Later in the afternoon he was given a hand walk and a graze and another hand walk at 7 p.m. He was never turned out loose in the pasture as he gets too wild and he has been know to hurt himself. Such is the life of the world's top dressage horse.
This is an interesting video of Totila's Grand Prix performance at the WEG (If you watch Gal at the WEG Free Style, even with the one goof, watch the rider. He earned a 10 for his riding at that competition.
Sadly, the incredible pair of Gal and Totilas has been broken apart and the WEG was their last competition together. Either just before, and kept a secret, or just after the World Equestrian Games Totilas was sold to Paul Schockemohle of Germany. Schockemohle was a big time show jumper now a big time breeder. He runs a stable of 3,000 horses and produces 500 foals a year at his farm. Totilas was moved there right after the WEG. It was announced in November that Totilas would have a new German rider: Matthais Roth. I watched a German video of him riding Toto and it made me so sad. Totilas belongs with Edward Gal. I am so sad that Toto was taken from his rider and trainer. It reminds me of Shema being taken from Bethany in Behind The Mist. I imagine that Toto's heart is broken, too.
Totilas will be used for breeding, of course, and a contract has already been signed to breed him with Brentina. See the November Post on Brentina.
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