Totalis' new rider

It has finaly been anounced that Matthias Alexander Rath will ride Totalis.

Thoughts?

First of all, lucky guy.
Second of all, good job for his father marrying the rich woman that bought into the horse!!

Matthias did not get the ride on that horse just because he's a good rider... Goes to show that you can get anywhere in this sport as long as you have money!!

Evidently money can buy you an olympic medal!

Money can buy you the horses to get an olympic medal :)

ETA: Just watched a video of Matthias riding at Aachen 2010...can't say I was overly impressed by his skill. Very busy hands!

No sure. Money definitely can't buy you a talent even with the best instructors ever.

Judging by the video from the presentation Toto has already taught him something about that! Still not nearly as quiet as Gal though..

While I agree that Gal is a quieter and possibly even better rider than Rath, I don't think that a bond is necessary between horse and rider to produce results. I feel as though any trained, good rider (you cannot say that Matthias Rath is not a good rider, whether or not you like the way he rides, he may not be an Edward Gal, but you cannot get to the Olympics ONLY on money and nice horses) should be able to get a nice ride out of a well-trained, athletic, talented horse. No horse that reaches the Olympics should be a "one rider" horse, because that completely negates the "well-trained" aspect. Now, at least at first, Rath will probably not produce that results that we are used to seeing from Totilas, but I think that with some time together they will come to be quite successful in their own right.

I don't envy Rath for getting the ride. If he doesn't come out on top with this horse he will be condemned by a lot of people. The world knows what Totilas is capable of and if they don't see it, Rath will get the short end of the stick here. I think that he wouldn't have gotten the ride if they didn't think he could achieve the same results, regardless of how much money he/his family has.

Bah! Dressage, the sport where money buys medals!

I've been thinking about this for a few days, and I totally agree!

I completely disagree with you here. I believe the bond is essential!

In the showring in the UK top show ponies change riders every 4-6 years as children get too old for the size of thier pony. It is well known that even top ponies do not preform to the same standard for the first 1 or 2 years with a new rider as the bond with the rider is not there. They still do well but not as well because the rider does not think like that pony, does not know it inside out, know its quirks and instinctively know what that horse was thinking. The horse will not trust a new rider as much as one it has had for a long time, will not have the same support or same management.

Example for you:
Stan I owned for 10 years I knew him inside out, I knew how he thought, I could predict how he would preform as soon as I unloaded him (no need to even sit on him as I could tell you what sort of mood he was in and how it would affect the ride he gave). He trusted me and when I said something wasnt scarey, it wasn't, If I asked him to pick up and fly over the ground then he would fly! If I asked him to rally round when he was knackered he tried his best for me.

I got too old for the Junior M&M classes so a good friend of mine rode him for 2 seasons in those classes whilst I did the opens on him.She is also a very good rider and he was very well schooled. She got results, yes the first show she went too on him she got 4th out of a class of 49! Could I have done better? You bet I could have because when she asked the judge how she could improve the judge pointed out that he had been looking for an excuse to spook in one corner and hesitated in anouther (both bad for what should be aperfectly schooled and mannered pony), both were things that I had spotted (from the side of the ring) were going to happen well (normaly about 5 strides) before they actualy happened, sitting on top I would have been able to perdict it even earlier and stop it before it even started.

Anouther show we went to She did the juniors, got a 5th. Then in the afternoon I did the open against pretty much the same competition and I won the class.

I've ridden her horse I can't get half the tune out of him that she can.

I realy don't get my sisters arab either, he feels like a bomb about to go off andI can't predict when he will, my sister thinks he is the easiet ridde in the world, she says she sits there and points him in the right direction and he does the rest, but she and him have an incredible bond! She disliked riding stan ass she couldnt get him to do much, she just ended up confusing him.

A good horse will go well for any rider, but they only go BRILLIANTLY for a rider that they have a bond with!