News: Billionaire publishing mogul ‘John’ purchases Totilas for HN’s managing editor

OK, that’s not true, but starting rumors about dressage superstar Toto does seem to be all the rage these days.

Dressage-o-philes got their britches in a twist about rumors abuzz in Austria that Totilas has been sold to equestrian investor Gaston Glock. Glock recently signed a 10-year sponsorship contract with Dutch dressage trio Hans Peter Minderhoud, Nicole Werner and Edward Gal (Toto’s former rider). You can see where we’re going with this: Glock + purchase of Toto = Edward gets his pony back.

But Klaus Martin Rath, husband of co-owner Ann Kathrin Lisenhoff, debunked the rumor, calling it “ridiculous.”

Rath told Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung, “We’re not thinking about selling Totilas. Any offer would have to be totally crazy, but anyone who knows our family and my wife knows that we never sell a horse. Totilas is not for sale and will not be an Austrian.”

We think he means totally crazier than the 11,800,000 Euro that Lisenhoff and Paul Schokemohle paid for the now 12-year-old stallion in October 2010. Lisenhoff and Rath’s son, Matthias Rath, hopes to ride Totilas in this summer’s Olympic games.

Their partnership still has a few kinks but they had better results at last weekend’s Paul Schockemohle stallion show.

According to This is Cornwall, “After their first appearance, when the horse managed to throw his tongue over the bit and seemed to be struggling with his canter transitions, last weekend was a little more positive. The stallion is still tight in the neck and seldom has his poll as the highest point, but his tempi changes and piaffe were a big improvement.”

Rath did confirm, however, that Gal has been pushing to get Toto back in his barn and that his new sponsorship with the billionaire Glock has opened a window.

Horse Nation is still interviewing for a foreign interpreter who is fluent in German (email your resume to [email protected] with the subject line “Hamburger”), so we’re just going to take eurodressage.com‘s word for it that these were Rath’s exact words to Kleine Zeitung: “For months Gal has been after Totilas and wants him back by hook or crook.”

High-powered international dressage gossip, yummy.

Photos: Seth Skim (top), Visionaire/EN (bottom)