In an interview with Dutch news agency NOS, trainer Sjef Janssen revealed that his student Matthias Rath's horse Totilas has been diagnosed with a bone inflammation - periostitis - on his left hoof. The horse will be out for four to five months.
"He always struggles with Robben injuries," Sjef Janssen explained, referring to Holland's star soccer player Arjen Robben who is constantly injured. "It's one injury after the other. We were able to get him going again, but this drives you crazy. Maybe it's time to retire him."
Totilas is a 15-year old Dutch warmblood stallion which Paul Schockemohle and Ann Kathrin Linsenhoff acquired after the 2010 World Equestrian Games in Kentucky. Rath and Totilas immediately qualified on the German team for the 2011 European Championships in Rotterdam, where they won team silver and finished fifth individually in the kur to music finals -- their best and only championship result ever.
In 2012 Rath switched coaches and moved to The Netherlands to get coaching from Sjef Janssen. The horse was injured from 2012 till 2014. They made their come back in May 2014 and won the Aachen Grand Prix and Special, beating Charlotte Dujardin and Helen Langehanenberg at the time, but had to withdraw from the Aachen kur because of another injury. In July 2015 they made their come back at the CDIO Hagen, their only show of the year, before the Grand Prix at the 2015 European Championships in Aachen last Thursday.
When asked if this is a career ending injury for Totilas, Janssen replied "it could be."
Source: NOS - Photo © Astrid Appels
Related Links
Totilas Withdrawn from 2015 European Dressage Championships
Holland Takes the Spoils in Scandalous Team Battle at 2015 European Dressage Championships
Totilas Still Got Game, Wins 4* Grand Prix at 2015 CDIO Hagen
Smooth Come Back for Rath and Totilas at 2014 CDI Kapellen
Matthias Rath to Train with Sjef Janssen
Totilas Sold to Paul Schockemohle