The Taming of Totilas

Paint Me Proud

Paint Me Proud

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(sorry if this has been posted before but worth posting again)

I have just watched a youtube video called The Taming of Totilas, about the different riding styles of Edward Gal and Matthias Rath and how that effects the performance of Totilas.

Really really interesting, over an hour long but well worth watching.

[youtube]sK3TzBuGN0w[/youtube]
 
yes I came across this on another site and was quite surprised at the different riding styles and the effect on the horse. Well worth watching.
 
I think the gist of it was that Gal rides very very sympathetically using his pelvis and seat to balance and support the horse, with very light leg aids. Whereas Rath uses mostly upper body, shoulder and hand movement to balance and tends to lean the opposite way to the movement than Gal does. Rath also uses much stronger leg aids.

All in all they said that as Totilas had been trained by Gal, using his subtle supportive style that Rath's style was simply too heavy and forceful for Totilas which is why he is having so many problems.
 
Paint Me Proud said:
I think the gist of it was that Gal rides very very sympathetically using his pelvis and seat to balance and support the horse, with very light leg aids. Whereas Rath uses mostly upper body, shoulder and hand movement to balance and tends to lean the opposite way to the movement than Gal does. Rath also uses much stronger leg aids.

All in all they said that as Totilas had been trained by Gal, using his subtle supportive style that Rath's style was simply too heavy and forceful for Totilas which is why he is having so many problems.
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An excellent precis of the vid Chico :D
 
Not to be controversial, but I have heard that Gal trained totilas using the rolkur method, if true then he is not the most sympethetic rider then? I dont really know the in's and out's of either of their training methods so could well be wrong!
 
shortstuff99 said:
Not to be controversial, but I have heard that Gal trained totilas using the rolkur method, if true then he is not the most sympethetic rider then? I dont really know the in's and out's of either of their training methods so could well be wrong!
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I agree with you that Rollkur is cruel and yes it is widely accepted that Gal trained Totilas in this way. The discussion on rider styles does stress at the beginning that they are ONLY looking at the riding style and not at the training methods. I think that shows that there is controversy over the training methods.
 
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