British breeders now have the choice of dressage star Totilas‘ semen on a stud basis for €8000 (around £6,700) plus VAT for the first time, or a ‘per dose’ basis for €5,000 (around £4,240) as last year.
Breeders choosing the first option through Elite Stallions will be able to get repeat doses of semen, if necessary, and if their mare is not in foal to the superstar by 1 December 2001, they will get half their money (€4,000) back.
The stud deal is only available through Twemlows Hall Stud Farm in Whitchurch, Shropshire, which also handled the insemination of stallion’s semen to just 12 approved mares in Britain last year. It reports that 85% of those mares are in foal, with 80% taking on the first insemination.
Totilas’ first foal was born on 23 January at the University Clinic for Animals in Utrech, the Netherlands. She is a dark brown filly named Moorlands Guinevere. There are no reports of British mares carrying progeny by Totilas having foaled yet.
Winner of three gold medals at the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky last year under Edward Gal, Totilas is a 17.1hh 11-year-old black Dutch warmblood stallion from the KWPN stud book. He is by Gribaldi and his dam is Lominka — by Glendale.
The stallion, formerly owned by Moorlands Stables, was sold to top European breeder Paul Schockemöhle last October for an undisclosed sum to the disappointment of dressage fans around the world. Germany’s Matthias Alexander Rath has been confirmed as his new rider.
