KatyM., Community News

Eurodressage.com has reported that, after a preliminary inquiry, charges filed by PETA against the German owners of Dutch Warmblood stallion Totilas will be fully investigated by prosecutors in Frankfurt.

The charges, which were filed in October 2012, concern both training methods and stabling issues.  

Totilas, the record-breaking star of the Dutch dressage team for several years, was sold in 2010 to Paul Schockemohle, a large-scale horse breeder and formerly a very successful international show jumping rider, in partnership with Ann-Katherine Linsenhoff, herself an FEI level dressage rider.   Linsenhoff is also the step-mother of Matthias Alexander Rath who was subsequently given the ride on the world famous stallion.

The PETA training allegations concern the use of the controversial "Rollkur" method.  

Totilas had been trained in the low, deep and round method (LDR) while ridden to dramatic record scores by Edward Gal.  When Rath first began riding the stallion, he did not apparently adopt the LDR technique and while the pair had achieved some success, they were not achieving the scores attained by Gal. 

In what turned out to be their final show in June 2012, observers noted that Rath had started using  the LDR technique in the warm-up.  While Rath was ill with mononucleosis, unable to ride and compete Totilas as well as missing the Olympics which had been an expectation for the pair, it was  announced that they would begin training with Dutch coach Sjef Janssen.   Janssen had previously been Gal's trainer and is a major proponent of LDR.  

The PETA charges maintain that Totilas' training in the "Rollkur" method along with the stabling practices with no turn-out for a breeding stallion violate German legal requirements for animal welfare.  

Eurodressage quotes Klaus Martin Rath, Matthias's father, as telling Die Welt:

 "No other horse in Germany has been under such scrutiny as Totilas the past two years. Everyone knows he is doing well. That is why I'm totally calm about this matter."

For more information, check Eurodressage.