Well, it’s official. One of the most talented horses to ever walk the Earth has been sold to former German showjumper and now top European breeder Paul Schockemohle, according to the Horse and Hound. During the WEGs, Edward denied rumors that Totilas had been sold with enough finality to make former LSU now Alabama head coach Nick Saban proud. Totilas broke every scoring record at the grand prix level with Edward over the last year and the sad reality is that his value as a breeding horse became too high for his owners not to sell him.
On Wednesday, rumors of the sale finally broke through into the German media and today Totilas’ former owners, Cees and Tosca Visser of Moorland’s stables have issued a press release in which they stated “After Kentucky it was impossible for us to refuse the offers on Totilas.” Of course, the amount of the sale has not been disclosed.
Eurodressage.com quotes a heartbroken Edward Gal as saying “From the first moment I rode him I knew he was a once-in-a-lifetime horse. Of course there was continuous interest in him, but I never expected it to go this quickly. I understand Moorland’s decision, but I’m sad.” My first reaction is to feel awful for Edward, and I am frustrated that, from what I have seen, neither the seller nor the buyer talked about Totilas’ welfare in their public statements.
Make no mistake: this was all about the money. From the sellers not being able to turn down such large sums of money to the buyer making calculations about how high and how many stud fees he can generate, there was a lot of math involved in this decision. While we may never know how much Totilas was sold for, this reminds me of the famous blockbuster racehorse sales, many of which do not work out well financially for the new owners. Totilas is such an outlier that he is unlikely to produce a horse as good as himself and if his first few groups of foals are not sensational then his breeding stock will fall considerably. This also reminds me of what Bruce says about breeding–it’s all about the mare. Unfortunately, the real losers here are the many dressage fans and aspiring your riders who will not get to see Totilas and Gal break any more records.
Go eventing.
