A few years ago, Moorland’s Totilas was the talk of the equestrian world. With his Dutch trainer/rider, Edward Gal, Totilas broke every record in grand prix dressage. He won every gold he could win at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. Fans were just starting to speculate on what the horse might be able to accomplish at the 2012 Olympics in London when he was sold to German breeder Paul Schockemöhle and his competition career reassigned to a young rider named Matthias Rath.

Rath and Totilas (the Moorland’s prefix now dropped) appeared in the show ring a few times with lackluster results. For the past two years, the pair have not competed at all, until Thursday, May 22. They reappeared in fine form at a show in Belgium, winning the grand prix with a score of 78.68%. It wasn’t a perfect test, and it didn’t reach the same brilliance that Totilas was noted for at the height of his career, but it gave fans reason to be optimistic.

Since Totilas’ disappearance from the show ring, his records have all been broken by the great British horse-and-rider team of Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro. With his re-entry into competition, Rath is likely working toward a spot on Germany’s team for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Normandy later this summer. Will we see a head-to-head battle between the two greatest dressage horses of the modern age?

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