Dressage-News

Totilas, the most successful dressage horse in history with three gold medals from the World Equestrian Games and who holds all three Grand Prix level world records, has been sold to Paul Schockemöhle of Performance Sales International in Germany.

Kees Visser of Moorland Investments and Totilas rider Edward Gal of the Netherlands announced the decision, saying that after the success in Kentucky two weeks ago, “the decision was made to let ‘The Living Legend’ go,” the title referring to a book of the horse that was distributed at WEG.

Paul Schockemöhle did not immediately say who would be the rider of Totilas, a 10-year-old black KWPN stallion whose first babies will be born early next year. The first birth is expected to be to a mare owned by Tosca and Kees Visser.

Both the Vissers and Paul Schockemöhle were at Kentucky for WEG.

Unconfirmed reports put the sale price at €9.5 million (US$13.36 million). The PSI breeding operation is perhaps the most successful in the show horse world and includes the stallion Sandro Hit, whose breeding contracts plus sale of offspring have returned his purchase price several times over.

“We make this announcement today with mixed feelings,” Kees said in the statement.

“We are at this moment in the last stages of the selling process and we preferred to wait until everything is final.

“The past two years have been a whirlwind of excitement for us, and we’ve enjoyed watching Edward and Totilas again and again. After Kentucky, however, we could no longer ignore the interest in the stallion. Therefore, the time came to discuss matters with one another, and we decided to let Moorland’s Totilas go.

“The World Equestrian Games in Kentucky were definitely the emotional and performance highpoints for us. Our decision was certainly not easy, but with all the performance highpoints and three gold medals in Kentucky, we didn’t want to push our luck. That’s why we believe that this is the right time to sell.

“Of course, it’s not easy for Edward. Thanks to his talent and effort, Totilas has become the phenomenon he is today. When we bought Totilas and Edward started riding him, we never suspected that they would become this top combination. Together, they have added a new dimension to dressage. They’re the first to score above 90!

“Fortunately, Edward understands our decision to take a new path, and new challenges lie ahead. We’ve invested in talented horses in the past, and we’ll certainly continue to do so in the future. We consider Edward a top rider, and we’ll keep supplying him with potential top horses in the coming years.”

Totilas was bought by the Vissers as an international ride for Edward after two of his mounts, Lingh and Ravel, were sold to the United States.

Edward showed the stallion as an eight-year-old at small tour then in 2009 they became the top combination at Grand Prix, leading Holland’s first ever team victory at the European Championships in Windsor in England in August. While at Grand Prix, the only pair to beat them in competition was their team mate, Adelinde Cornelissen and Jerich Parzival, who are ranked No. 2 in the world.

The horse virtually rewrote the record books,

Within just 14 months his “firsts” included team and individual gold in the European Championships in August, 2009, the World Cup title in March, 2010 and three gold medals at the 2010 WEG in Kentucky, and along the way collected world record scores for the Grand Prix, the Special and the Freestyle. The only global honor not won has been the Olympics–and the next Games are two years away in London.

In 2010, his first year of breeding, Totilas received more than 350 applications from than 15 countries, at least half the requests from Germany. About 175 mares were approved, including to the U.S.-owned mare Brentina that was ridden by Debbie McDonald to Olympic and World Equestrian Games medals and the first World Cup title for an American.

The breeding fee was €5,500 (US$7,750) for total revenue of up to €962,500 (US$1,356,000).