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Tottilas retires from competition
It is now official that Tottilas is not going to return to dressage championships. His team made the following statement on Facebook, in English and German: “Official statement – Offizielles Statement (für deutsche Version bitte runterscrollen) After the last week and the now circulating speculations about Totilas’ future, we – as a family – would like to take a stand on this matter: How much the international dressage sport owes to this horse is almost impossible to put into words. Never before has a dressage horse moved and thrilled these masses – no matter if horse-enthusiast or not, young or old. As already known from various sources, the examination last…
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Update on Totilas’ health
After the detailed examinations in the Belgian clinic which he was admitted last Friday, Totilas’ final diagnosis seems to be periostitis, according to the magazine dressage-news.com . Totilas will remain out of competition for at least 4-5 months, and his permanent retirement from shows still remains a possibility. According to the website horse-diseases.com, periostitis is a bone disease which makes the bone membrane swallow, and get thicker and redder than normal, thus making its stripping from the bone very easy. There are three sorts of periostitis: the simple/acute, the suppurative and the osteoplastic. The second and the third form can occur as a result of the first one and all three…
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Doing the dirty job: How to clean a stall
It’s nice to ride along a valley or jump around in the arena or dancing with your equestrian friend, but, like us humans, our equestrian friends produce, well, “waste”, which needs cleaning. This might not be a fun process obviously, but it is necessary for a healthy horse. Why do we clean/muck our a stable/stall? For several reasons; the stall does not smell, the horse does not swallow the toxic ammonia coming from its own urine, flies -horses’ worst enemy- have no reason to stay inside a stall, the hooves are kept healthy, the floor of the stall has the chance to dry, and our equine friend has a soft,…
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Back in the saddle: Who says it’s always pleasant?
The Easter break is over at last, and lessons in the Trent Valley have resumed for our riding club. I was excited and looked forward to working on my trot and also hoped I could learn how to canter -which happened unexpectedly. What is more, I planned to speak to Laura about my thoughts about getting to the BHS helper certificate over the summer. But Wednesday’s session was not ideal. When we arrived in the arena, I was given an uncooperative, old fart (old fart because he was old and was farting all the time), strong stallion. It was obvious from the first moment that it was not his day.…
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Freestyle dressage from Moorlands Totilas and Edward Gal
I have heard about Edward Gaal and Moorlands Totilas before. They were an amazing pair. Here is a video from the 2009 KUR Olympia dressage show in London. I have watched it countless times! Simply splendid!