Cross-post: new Totilas and Mathias video (my thoughts)

Cross-post from Behind the Bit.

I had too much to say to simply comment.

The first thing that came to my mind when watching this was something Edward Gal said in a Dressage Today article about the first time he sat on Totilas. He said he felt so powerful beneath him, that it almost felt dangerous to even be on, "frightening" as he put it, because there was so much power in that horse, and he got off very quickly. He gave him another go, it went better, and so on and so forth.

So that was the big thing I thought of when I saw how held-back Totilas seemed to be, and how less-fluid his movement was, if you could call his movements under Gal as truly fluid (I'll touch on that in a few). Mathias is holding that pony back because A) he's on a horse that probably feels unlike any horse anyone had ridden before, and B) he's got all the pressure upon him to be like Totilas' former rider, Edward Gal, and do as well with the horse as Gal did.

Yeah, I'd be scared poopoo-less as well, and I'd for sure be holding on to the bit a little more than I should have.

(Also, ENOUGH with the Pirates of the Caribbean music! It's been overused! I could tell right away where that music was from!)

And lastly, I still am iffy about Totilas. While I will say his gaits are extraordinarily unusual, and quite attractive to a non-horse person (and even so to a horse person, myself included upon initially seeing him go) the more and more I see them, the more and more they simply bother me.

I have yet to see him do a normal trot, and even then what I suppose is his normal trot seems to be a faster-paced passage. His extended trots and passages have little difference, almost the same tempo, and he doesn't glide in the extended trot like I've seen most Grand Prix horses do, and from what I understand are supposed to look like. His hind end does not match up to his front, he does not step as much underneath himself like a dressage horse is supposed to do. He never looks relaxed, he never looks loose and free, like he could hold his position on a simple snaffle or even a loose rein. He doesn't look like he really enjoys his work, like it's been thrust upon him because of his talent (story of many an Olympic horse's life, no?)

It doesn't look natural to me, and isn't dressage supposed to be a horse's natural movements exemplified? Totilas' movements, for the most part, seem to be just beyond natural, somewhat unhealthy, and I don't know if that's necessarily a good thing for the dressage world to progress towards, as impressive as the gaits are.


This looks relaxed and follows my purist ideals of a horse's natural movements exemplified. Did I mention this mare is full blood stock QH? Look at that hind end reaching, and matching the front end! And look at how relaxed BOTH of the reins are! A horse, if trained well, does not have to be held into a position, as show here, in Exhibit A.

(This also looks like Greta's little Quarter Horse butt when she gets really engaged. It gives me hope! If this pony can do it, why not Miss Golightly?)


This looks relaxed as well, and natural, and Ravel is a modern warmblood. Steffen, at the clinic I went to in October, was very adamant about NOT holding a horse or forcing a horse into a postion. Because the biggest culprit was the host of the clinic, Steffen didn't get after him as much I thought he perhaps might have wanted to, seeing how he kindly reminded other riders to never allow their horses to hang on the bit or to force a horse into a position, which will also cause the horse to hang on the bit (among other things). He was very much a proponent for self-carraige, which is what much of the clinic focused on. And, as we can see in the above picture, his ideas certainly work, even at the Olympic level, and Ravel always looks so relaxed and happy, even when Steffen does have to snatch a bit more rein in electric situations like the WEG or Olympic arena.

All in all, while Totilas' movements are impressive to a certain degree, they are also bothersome to a certain degree. Those are just my opinions ;)