Matthias Alexander Rath and the 11-year old Dutch warmblood stallion Totilas will not be competing at their home show in Frankfurt, Germany, on 14 - 18 December 2011. The black stallion sustained a minor injury last week and will not be fit to compete by next week.
The CDI-W Frankfurt is a stone's throw away from Rath's home stable Schafhof in Kronberg, Germany, and the event is heavily supported by his stepmom Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff.
Last week Totilas sustained a minor injury to his front leg and had to be hand-walked for a couple of days. At the last check-up the vet decided that Frankfurt would come too soon in his recovery. Rath can only pick up training as of next week.
"I had been looking forward to that show for weeks," Matthias Rath told newspaper Frankfurter Neue Presse. "The last few weeks I had been having so much fun in our daily training because Totilas was
really on my aids."
"It really hurts because we have been looking forward to our ride there," said trainer Klaus Martin Rath. "Of course we wanted to present Totilas to the fans."
While Frankfurt will not be Totilas' last show of the 2011 show season, the World Dressage Masters in Palm Beach in January should still be his first show of 2012.
"His health is priority above all. As long as he's not 100% fit nothing will happen," Matthias Rath explained. "It would have made no sense (to show in Frankfurt) after two weeks of no training."
Photo © Barbara Schnell
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