Whoa!!! Nice horsey!! ~ The Equestrian Thread

[maatTheViking]

I know I'm probably here, but I just believe he bailed out because he knew he had no chance. Poor guy got his stepmom to buy him half a horse and was basically doomed from the start.

I feel so sorry for him. Totilas has basically been pronounced the best thing since man tamed a horse, and the expectations are so high, and he is so young. Everyone in Germany was expecting that he would wrestle the dominance back from the Dutch, since he now got the wonder horse.

Imagine being given a horse of that price and asked to now go win! yikes!

I agree, I wonder too how much is mononucleosis and how much is nervous breakdown...

I can't help wonder how it would have looked if Gal had ridden Totilas - so many questions there though, wonder if Anky would have bothered to come back to dressage then...

ahhh, the drama!

[mazzy]

I feel so sorry for him. Totilas has basically been pronounced the best thing since man tamed a horse, and the expectations are so high, and he is so young. Everyone in Germany was expecting that he would wrestle the dominance back from the Dutch, since he now got the wonder horse.

Well they did manage to kill off the Dutch, but who would've thought of freaking Britain? Rath is a big boy, his family has been in the business long enough, so he should have known that he probably would not have gotten the time necessary to prepare for Olympics -especially given that Schockemöhle wanted a return on his investment.
Really, Germany should not have trusted in Werth and the Old Girls Club post Beijing. They should have started to hype their younger riders like GB did with Bechtolsheimer and Dujardin. Hell, they probably could have Bechtolsheimer riding for them now if they had not been quite so full of themselves.

[AxelAnnie]

I love the hopping/skipping (I'm sure it has an official name)

Gorgeous


ETA single time and double time changes

Also known as Tempi Changes Short video of Niel Ishoy in 2007, called "Did you ever see a horse skip?"\

And this one is really great: Andreas Helgstrand at the 2006 WEG riding Hip Hop Dressage

[danceronice]

If I could ride any horse at the Olympics, I would want to ride that big chestnut with the chrome on the British team....he's huge, but he FLOATS.

[Dragonlady]

I think the situation with Totilas is the similar to that of Idle Dice and Rodney Jenkins a few years ago. Idle Dice was the greatest jumping horse in the world, but at some point, the horse's owners had some sort of falling out with Jenkins and gave the horse to a younger, less experienced rider. Idle Dice looked absolutely ordinary with this girl riding him and the owners quickly patched up their differences with Jenkins. Rodney Jenkins rode Idle Dice to the end of his career.

In the case of Totilas, it's unlikely he'll be returned to Edward Gal to ride, and the horse may never return to the level of brilliance he displayed with Gal riding him.

[Alixana]

Andreas Helgstrand at the 2006 WEG riding Hip Hop Dressage

I can't believe they let him use that song!! Horse and rider are fabulous though.

[Lorac]

I find some of the comments on this thread interesting re Totilias and Rath and as I had no idea about dressage I went and googled the names. Very interesting - so unless a rider owns or part owns their own horse they are always open to losing that horse if the owner chooses to sell it. So a horse can be ridden in 3 different olympics for 3 different countries by 3 different riders if the owners sell!! That now explains some of the comments of the GB show jumping team about the owners having faith with them.

It seems very cut-throat and clear that Germany tried to break the Netherlands by buying the horse out from under Gal Edward. But isn't there a bond between rider and horse - surely the Germans didn't expect the horse to keep performing at that ridiculous high level immediately for a different rider who hadn't bonded with it. It seems a tragedy that we never got to see Totilas perform at his highest potential as everyone kept going on about 80% and over being great scores here at the Olympics yet Gal and Totilas scored way over 90% on a few occassions

[mazzy]

Lorac,
I think it is somewhat blurrier than that. Paul Schockemöhle is the current owner of Totilas and Totilas for him is obviously an investment (if and how much the German dressage team means to him is up for debate). There is obviously no direct return on investment from riding Grand Prix, that's why Totilas is spending most of the year in a barn mounting phantoms (the prices are quite outrageous, but there are plenty of rich girls asking for some Totilas semen as a birthday present, it seems).
Linsehoff, Rath's stepmom bought the riding right for Totilas. What she was thinking, I cannot comprehend. If Rath wanted a realistic shot, IMO he would have needed much more training time than Schockemöhle was willing to give him and even then, there was always going to be a backlash from many fans and judges for "stealing" Gal's horse when, really, that's just the modus operandi in the business. When there was talk of Isabell Werth riding Totilas, she immediately refused because she knew of all the problems she would have faced.

[Dragonlady]

It seems very cut-throat and clear that Germany tried to break the Netherlands by buying the horse out from under Gal Edward. But isn't there a bond between rider and horse - surely the Germans didn't expect the horse to keep performing at that ridiculous high level immediately for a different rider who hadn't bonded with it. It seems a tragedy that we never got to see Totilas perform at his highest potential as everyone kept going on about 80% and over being great scores here at the Olympics yet Gal and Totilas scored way over 90% on a few occassions

There is a bond between horse and rider and some riders are definitely more skilled than others. Totilas looks like a completely different horse with Rath and not for the best. Two nerdy looking guys have put up an extensive analysis on YouTube of the differences between the riding styles of Gal and Rath and their conclusion was that Rath impedes the horse's movement while Gal assists it.

With any "superhorse", be it Hickstead, Idle Dice or Totilas, half of what makes them super is that their rider is able to help them realize their potential. We don't just think of Big Ben, it's Ian Millar and Big Ben. But unless the rider owns the horse, they're always at the mercy of the owners.

[danceronice]

Germany offered a lot of money for Totilas, his owner would have been nuts not to take it. Sucks for Gal but he's a great rider.

News regarding the eliminated Canadian rider--the horse had a cut on the coronet. (Meaning I have ZERO trouble believing the inspection vets pulled a Sapphire and just kept going pokepokepokepoke until she got fed up and reacted. That is NOT any sort of threatening injury, it's the kind of thing you can get taking front boots off.) Equine Canada issued a statement about it that Eric Lamaze (who's also Tiffany's coach) did not find supportive of her of the Canadian team. He's riding today but he's refusing to ride for Team Canada events (Spruce, etc) until they issue a statement in her support. Another Canadian rider has spoken out on her behalf as well.

American viewers, show jumping individual final is LIVE NOW on NBC. Geez, the one British rider they've shown so far saved that line! Guy must have legs and arms of iron and nerves of steel. So many horses look tired--when Rodgrio pulls rails you know it's a long week.

[Lara]

Two one hundredths of a second over time for the Irish rider - ouch!

[Lorac]

Lorac,
I think it is somewhat blurrier than that. Paul Schockemöhle is the current owner of Totilas and Totilas for him is obviously an investment (if and how much the German dressage team means to him is up for debate). There is obviously no direct return on investment from riding Grand Prix, that's why Totilas is spending most of the year in a barn mounting phantoms (the prices are quite outrageous, but there are plenty of rich girls asking for some Totilas semen as a birthday present, it seems). Linsehoff, Rath's stepmom bought the riding right for Totilas. What she was thinking, I cannot comprehend. If Rath wanted a realistic shot, IMO he would have needed much more training time than Schockemöhle was willing to give him and even then, there was always going to be a backlash from many fans and judges for "stealing" Gal's horse when, really, that's just the modus operandi in the business. When there was talk of Isabell Werth riding Totilas, she immediately refused because she knew of all the problems she would have faced.

So the poor horse doesn't even get to mount a real horse Poor thing!!!

I can understand why buying Totilas is an investment but it seems unfair that the horse can't compete at the highest level for the entire world (not just the equestrian world) to see after he has been trained up for it

[maatTheViking]

It is very rare at this level that you own your own horse - the horses are simply too expensive ( I believe Ravel is insured for a double digit million $ sum).

Danish Nathalie zy Sayn Wittegenstein is quite and exception, being in top 10 in the world and riding horses her parents and her bred - she has trained her current horse from foal. That is quite impressive.

The reason the horse doesn't get to mount a real mare is for a couple of reasons:
It is too dangerous - have you ever seen a stallion mount a mare? The mare kicks, the stallion bites - it is quite violent. When I saw it I was quite baffeled, those hind legs of the mare gets quite close to the stallions equipment!
In addition, it is much more economically feasible to send semen around than horses, and one batch can inserminate multiple mares.

While Schockemohle did buy Totilas for breeding, I am sure there were some German pride in there. If he had continued to let a Dutchman ride it he would have been flayed!

As for Germany, it seems interesting how they got in this place - look at the pony, junior and young riders now, a lot of German winners.

[Lorac]

I just think it is unfair and sad for Totilas not to be able to do something he was obviously very good at and seemingly loved to do as there is no way he would have scored so high or past vet's checks etc if he wasn't well cared for and happy. He is a flesh and blood creature and IMHO what is happening to him at the moment seems a tad cruel. I hope someone is allowed to ride him and bond with him so we can see him to his full potential!!

[maatTheViking]

oh, Totilas will return to competition - there is no doubt about it. It was just unfortunate that Rath got so sick, and I don't think I really believe he bailed if he didn't have a health issue (whether that was drawn out due to stress, we will never know).

They may still find their stride together - and I doubt Totilas will leave the sport.

[paulac]

Two one hundredths of a second over time for the Irish rider - ouch!

That was so close! At least he got a bronze - he wasn't even in the final until this morning (1st reserve) so happy with that

[AragornElessar]

News regarding the eliminated Canadian rider--the horse had a cut on the coronet. (Meaning I have ZERO trouble believing the inspection vets pulled a Sapphire and just kept going pokepokepokepoke until she got fed up and reacted. That is NOT any sort of threatening injury, it's the kind of thing you can get taking front boots off.) Equine Canada issued a statement about it that Eric Lamaze (who's also Tiffany's coach) did not find supportive of her of the Canadian team. He's riding today but he's refusing to ride for Team Canada events (Spruce, etc) until they issue a statement in her support. Another Canadian rider has spoken out on her behalf as well.

Good for Eric!! I am so sick and tired of the statements from both Equine Canada *and* Soccer Canada regarding what's been happening at these Games. The athletes have been screwed by the very organizations that are supposed to keep stuff like from even happening and instead of pushing the issue, they duck their tails and issue these wishy washy statements not to make the big bad people make things even worse.

How could things get any worse? At least Boxing Canada had the balls to appeal what happened yesterday even though they knew they'd lose it. But at least they stood up and supported their athlete the way all of them should be when things like this take place.

[Alixana]

After all the talk about Gal and Totilas, I went back and watched some of the their moments on youtube. Brings tears to my eyes. That was a spectacular horse and rider combo.

Also found this interesting .. What happened to Totilas? looking at how different riders impact how the horse moves.

[Dragonlady]

After all the talk about Gal and Totilas, I went back and watched some of the their moments on youtube. Brings tears to my eyes. That was a spectacular horse and rider combo.

Also found this interesting .. What happened to Totilas? looking at how different riders impact how the horse moves.

Yes, that's the two nerdy guys I was referring to.

Watching the two riders back to back, I seriously doubt that Rath will ever bring out the best in Totilas.

[Lorac]

Way to go Charlotte Dujardin and Laura Bechtolsheimer for wining gold and bronze respectively in the dressage event. Loved Charlotte and Valegro's music - very patriotic and last night of the proms feel to it and done beautifully!!!

23rd gold and 50th medal in total for Team GB