Totilas in Disguise: Success Cannot Be Bought

I have watched this video from start to finish and I almost cried. What the hell has happened to Totilas?
http://www.topdressage.tv/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=190&t=4456&p=11861#p11861

(For comparison, here is Edward Gal and Totilas' world record breaking kur performance at Hickstead in 2009: http://www.horseandcountry.tv/episode/edward-gal-moorlands-totilas-record-breaking-wdm-kur).

Don't get me wrong, while I respect what Totilas has done for the sport, I do find his action both irregular and over-marked, for his extended walks and trots at least. (His real strength is power with softness, seen very well in his passage and piaffe). He is not perfect, and his lack of over-tracking in walk and assymetry in impulsion in extended trot seem to be over-looked, but damn it he is special. A sleek, black horse will always be breath-taking to me (see my love of Friesians, Dales, Fell ponies, Newfoundland dogs etc as proof of shiny black creature-adoration), but he has that x-factor: that charisma that supercedes the boundaries of dressage. He has drawn a lot of spectators into the sport and has helped to increase both live and TV dressage audiences across the world. It doesn't matter what his scores are really: he had done the world of dressage much good.

Now in early videos of Matthias Rath and Totilas together, Toto has looked tense and there were lots of communication errors (e.g. Toto giving a canter when Rath was trying for passage). Getting used to a new horse and bonding with it takes time, and with such subtle movements and signals being required for such high level dressage moves, it would not surprise me that this can take more time in dressage. (However, Carl Hester had sat on Wie Atlantico 9 times before riding him in The World Dressage Masters in Florida last month and came 4th in the freestyle, so go figure). Anyway, long story short, I expected things to get better with time. The video shows things to be much worse.

Not only in the demo above does Totilas lack any spirit or brightness in general, he is tense and his movement quality is abysmal. The first passage is just awful and nearly all of the canter work is disunited, to the point that Toto completely bunny hops most strides. This can be the sign of a bad back, and itis compatible with the fact that he's been covering dummy mares as part of his stud duties. However, Rath and team have enough money to provide Toto with all the physio/osteo/McTimmony sessions he could need every week to keep his back supple. So either they took a 'lame' horse out to a show, or the is another worrying problem to attend to.

Rath also rides Toto on a really tight contact. Don't get me wrong, contact is all important for containment and control of energy, but Toto looks like a coke bottle that's been shaken up and is ready to blow but has no outlet. Rath also has a lot of torso movement, like he's riding him really hard with his seat. Anyone that's watched Gal on Totilas will know that's not how he was ridden then, at the peak of his success. So the question is, if Rath's style of riding is curtailing Toto's ability, why hasn't Rath changed it yet? I like to think of myself as a sympathetic rider: when I get on a horse I learn it's way of going: I do not try to teach it my own. I therefore adapt my style of riding to the horse to get the most out of it. I hate people that have the teutonic approach of "This is how one should ride according to the textbooks and I will ride every horse I get on like this, even if the horse hates it and it does not aid it's way of going." Rath competes at the highest level of dressage - he must be able to alter his seat, contact etc to do so. Why he hasn't taken the Toto-centric approach to get Toto going, I don't know, but the horse certainly looks less happy and less able for it.

It also doesn't make sense to me why Rath and the team have let Toto out in public like this. Toto was the most expensive horse in the world when he was sold, and despite his progeny being unproven (and only hitting the ground in the last 18months or so), the stud fee was collosal. Paul Schockemöhle bought him as a breeding horse, with Rath's parents joining forces to buy the sporting rights i.e. the ride. How Paul will continue to make a large fee off a horse showing such poor movement is beyond me. What would be much better is if Toto was still a medal and competition winning horse. Under Rath he has deteriorated though, and as they own the ride on him, would he be passed onto anyone else (especially given the threat Toto holds when competitive)? Would PS need to agree to the sale, and would he if this was a requirement? I just don't see how things are going to get better: perhaps some day Toto will have a mystery injury and disappear to stud forever. His sire Gribaldi was known not to handle the pressure of competing well as he got older, so perhaps it would be no surprise if Totilas was retired younger than is typical for a Grand Prix dressage horse.

What I do hope is that Totilas finds happiness. I don't care if he becomes a field ornament and just makes babies: if he's happy, that would be wonderful. He allegedly doesn't get turn-out now, and this is typical in dressage - the horses are seen as being worth too much to let them pull a ligament or cut open their tendon in a field accident. It's why I have so much respect for Carl Hester actually: his youngsters live out in herds as young horses should do, and all his broken-in horses get plenty of turn out and hacking. They live a fairly normal life compared to most dressage horses the world over.  He knows that no horse is too expensive to ever stop being a horse. Hester also appreciates the importance of the rider-horse relationship: the reason Charlotte has the ride on Blueberry (Valegro) is because he quickly saw that they worked together better than he and Blueberry did. That's how things should be, but because of the whole half-breed owning, half-sport owning, all German-owning set up with Totilas, that will never happen I feel. I certainly hope that a fate like this never befalls Carl's Uthopia.

Anyway, as I was saying, either as a healthy competition horse with less stud pressure, or a retired stud horse, I hope Toto lives a happy, healthy, long life and that this starts soon. What I saw in that video was not a happy horse and no matter how famous or how expensive, no true horse lover wants to see a horse unhappy.

This is an important lesson too in that success cannot be bought: it is not the ability of the horse that will win medals. Rather, it is the ability of the partnership, of which the horse and rider are equal halves.

Bit of a Break Through! Flatwork on Murph (4/2/12)

I had a brilliant lesson on Saturday night - the kind of lesson I'd been working towards for quite a while.

I had my fave horse Murphy, 14.2hh or so of sweet, bay spookiness. He started off slowly in walk, not off the leg at all, and required more backing up than usual. Given the refusal of the last girl on board to push him (much to my frsutration from the sidelines), he'd settled into full on lazy mode. That didn't last long: it wasn't allowed to!

The warm up was spent getting him off the leg. Our first proper exercise was sitting trot, to which my RI remarked on how beautifully collected I had him while I did so, and that he really looked to be between leg and hand. The canter that followed confirmed this - he settled onto the bit for the first few paces, then putting his head up (to normal, not giraffe or evasive levels) and gave the most beautiful, responsive canter. I was grinning from ear to ear because it felt perfect - my seat and posture were great, my weight naturally in my heels and he was working for me. My RI immediately told me that she wishes she'd her phone with her: it was so close to perfect that it should be filmed for me to enjoy, and to prove that Murphy can and does work hard!

Last week's sore point were his halts: while sometimes Murph gives you them, he often wanders. It's the RS horse in him: you  never halt for the sake of halting. You only halt because it's your turn not to do any work: he therefore wanders into the centre or the corners, the places he stands out of the way while another pony jumps or canters alone. The first halt I did this week  used  Lorraine Jennings' (@pollson's) thigh squeeze technique, that I'd not used on any horse before. Without using my hands he knew instinctively what it meant and responded immediately. I couldn't believe it was as quick and simple to implement as that! It continued through the lesson, where he not only halted as soon as asked and remained stationary, but he was collected and working so well that he halted perfectly square, his beautiful neck curved, and him on the bit. I cannot explain how much that meant, given that halt is such a great indicator of other issues e.g. balance/onesidedness. They say only an engaged horse can halt squarely, and oddy enough I found that proof even more satisfying than the words of my instructor P.

After lots of beautiful trot work, from medium trots, to wonderful collected work where he really sought the bit and worked in an outline, the canter work phase really flowed. P asked me for a collected canter and the best word I can think to describe it was 'subtle'. Everything was soft and easy to ride, and it felt like he was coming up almost as much as he was going forward. The gentle uphillness of it was gorgeous. She then asked me to extend it: leg and more rein and he straightaway granted me that. I grinned from ear to ear, the wind in my hair and a beautiful, energetic canter beneath me, with my body sitting and working as it should. I nearly cried!

We also did some centre-line work, and I got some lovely bend and flexion from him while turning and off of it: something he's loathed to give when working him on the track or even in a circle (unless in canter). Our straightness was also better than I'd anticipated. We only went wonky a bit once, and that was our first time cantering down the centre line, to halt 'for the judges' at the end. It sounds stupid I know,  but that's the first tme I'd cantered the centre line, and after the initial lack of straightness when he moved away from my canter aid rather than into canter for a stride, it was gorgeous, complete with perfect 'Pollson' downtransitions to halt.  That, as did every successful halt, was celebrated with a pat and a fuss. I'm the only one who ever tries to school and correct his wandering, but if possible I'd like it to last for more than my own lessons!  The only time he wandered was when I halted in a corner and started to chat to P to get my next list of movements at certain letters. He stood for a few mins before wandering, which was an improvement, but moving him where I wanted to and rehalting worked perfectly. He didn't shift until I asked him for the walk to medium trot transition, which he freely gave.

So all in all, while not always in an outline, I did get him on the but for some of the work, but he remained between leg and hand for the duration nonetheles: I was pleased, as I know the rest will come as my leg strength improves and I learn more. The whole lesson though once I'd worked through his laziness, was on a horse that listened to me, had his ears pricked at all times, and worked beautifully: beautifully to ride and, I'm assured, beautifully to watch. My RI was gushing about how great it is to see Murphy properly worked. Too many let him away with murder, and most are interested on flatwork and schooling. I really didn't want to get off, and spent so much time fussing that I missed the last bus home! The extra fare for the train was worth it though: it really felt like a break through in the quality of my flatwork and general riding. I am beyond excited about riding next week, even if I do freeze again 80)