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Yawn; I know..also apologies for not asking in the ‘other sports’ section. A friend of mine who isn’t at all interested in horses saw a horse on the telly win a dressage event a couple of weeks ago; she thinks it was a German horse. Not only did this horse win, but it had a standing ovation, and my friend says that, even though she has no knowledge of horses or dressage she knew as she was watching it that she was seeing something extraordinary [bit like me watching George Best play football]. Wondered if anyone knew anything about this horse.
If it’s older footage it was likely the great dressage horse Bonfire (early 90’s)
In terms of rider it could be the Dutch Olympic Champion Anky Van Grunsven (who rode Bonfire) and or the top German rider Isabel Werth – most likely to get a standing ovation
Aha; found it..it was the Dutch rider Edward Gal riding Moorlands Totilas at the Windsor European Championships..he scored 90.75. The horse is jet black and totally stunning..just going to see if there’s anything on utube..I’d love to see it.
Dressage is not a discipline I’d normally watch. It’s a bit like the equestrian equivalent of rhythmic gymnastics. However that particular performance was a stunning example of partnership between horse and rider and captivating stuff.
Rob
Aha; found it..it was the Dutch rider Edward Gal riding Moorlands Totilas at the Windsor European Championships..he scored 90.75. The horse is jet black and totally stunning..just going to see if there’s anything on utube..I’d love to see it.
Yes this horse has taken dressage world by storm and is indeed sensational to watch.
He should only get better as he advances even further in his training… if he remains sound – the tricky bit, and probably even more so with top dressage horses than racehorses!
Was ‘forced’ to watch this by my girlfriend last week; even I could tell it was something truly exceptional. Worth watching despite dressage being like a foreign language to most racing fans.
Sweaty tail-flasher: can have a squiggle for me.
Seriously, that was mesmerising. Racing could do worse than put something like this on as complementary entertainment in place of some of that musical shoite.
When I went into Youtube just now and keyed in Moorlands Totilas, the first 3 videos of the horse performing in Holland and at Hickstead and Windsor had amassed a total of nearly 190,000 viewings between them.
Now try keying in "Kauto Star" or "Sea The Stars" and see what you get.
I think there might be a little lesson to be learned here for the UK with regard to the general non-availability of race videos on Youtube.
Venusian, I totally agree. Check out Blu Hors Matinee performing Freestyle at the WEG in 2006. This video, which isn’t even very good quality, has received over 9.1 Million hits!
What an advertisement for the sport.
An interesting thread – I feel encouraged to ‘come out’
I watched dressage for the first time at the last Olympics, usually I’d have watched the cross-country and showjumping but given the dressage a miss, and really enjoyed it.
Great effort. The skill and dedication that must have taken, and the effort on the horses account. It was a different class to watching the novice at Fakenham.
Reckon I might start letting my wife do some flat work with my horses, shes always trying to convince me its the way forward. lolWent to visit a friend last week who has a dressage horse and is bringing on a couple of youngsters [not in the same league as this lot, I hasten to add]. She said there is an even better horse than Morlands Tortilas, [who has one discipline that he is rubbish at]..this other horse is called Parsifal. One of them came third in a competition a while ago with a score of 80%, which means that the standard is getting higher and higher. Doesn’t Henrietta Knight do a bit of dressage with her horses? My friend also agree that the horses do get injred a lot because of the strain it puts on their tendons.
cough ….umm….. rollkur……cough……
I don’t get this horse, to me he looks, overbent, his hind legs aren’t engaged there is no impulsion in his hind legs I prefer Salinero every time (even if Anky is another Rollkur specialist)
Henrietta Knight does/did do dressage (or "flatwork") with some of her horses, including Best Mate. I think I read somewhere that Michael Dickinson believes in it too – to get horses to drop their heads, stretch their necks and use their backs – all useful for building the right muscles and for jumping
I thought Totilas was awesome too, but Horse and Hound website have a video of the late Reine Klimke winning the 1984 (Los Angeles) Olympic dressage on a much more TB type of horse. It makes interesting viewing – the horses’ action is nothing like as spectacular but the rider-horse relationship is very special. I know that this horse (Ahlerich) was a very hot-headed and sensitive horse, given to bolting out of the arena when younger.
There have been comments along lines of "racing needs a star like this". Haven’t we got them? Sea The Stars? Kauto? Masterminded?
There have been comments along lines of "racing needs a star like this". Haven’t we got them? Sea The Stars? Kauto? Masterminded?
Yes, but people can’t see them on Youtube, that’s the point I was trying to make.
Outside of this country and Ireland, Moorlands Totilas is probably a far better known horse than those three put together. The internet is changing everything, whether we like it or not, and racing in this country had better get used to it.
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