Toto's freestyle win pleases world

They came from around the world, packing Rolex Stadium at the Kentucky Horse Park.

Friday night's attraction: grand prix freestyle dressage at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

For those whose previous dressage experiences were limited to Three-Day Event dressage, this was a chance to see "horse ballet" play to a different tune. Rider and horse, to their own music, performing a choreographed routine.

One other thing everyone came to see: Edward Gal and his legendary black stallion, Moorlands Totilas. They did not go away disappointed.

The world-record-holding combo from the Netherlands already led the scoring in Tuesday's team competition, helping the Dutch to their first WEG gold medal in dressage. Wednesday, Gal and Totilas struck individual gold.

The 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood who also is known as Toto even has had a recently published book written about him — Totilas, The Living Legend.

Gal, 40, proved unbeatable again Friday, completing a sweep of WEG dressage. His score of 91.8 missed the world record 92.3 he set on Toto last December, but was plenty enough Friday.

Repeating 2-3 honors from team and individual rides were Great Britain's Laura Bechtolsheimer on Mistral Hojris (85.35) and American Steffen Peters on Ravel (84.9).

Gal said he did his best to ignore the crowd of 25,000.

"I try to focus on my test and try not to see them," he said. "It's difficult not to hear them, but when you are focused it's OK."

He said Toto needed a few moments to settle down. The horse wanted to turn an early extended trot into a canter. The deeper into the routine, though, the more relaxed Totilas became. The better the performance became.

Bechtolsheimer, 25, and Peters, 46, on Wednesday became their nation's first WEG individual dressage medalists. (Side note: both were born in Germany.)

Friday's result proved again that Bechtolsheimer is a potential home-nation star for the 2012 London Olympics.

As for Peters, "American rider on American turf in front of an American crowd — that sounds unbelievable," he said. "And the support has been absolutely fascinating here. It's really hard to describe when you're in that arena and it just goes wild in there, how it feels."

Peters, a U.S. citizen since 1992 and based in San Diego, was thrilled with Ravel, his 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood.

"He started off really good, and I was a little concerned because he was a bit nervous coming into this arena," Peters said. "He just settled right down and he just felt amazing."

For the uninitiated, dressage is not the most gripping of sporting events.

Most of those on hand Friday, shelling out $110 for a cheap seat, were initiated.

Michelle Barkley and her mother, Pam, came from Geelong, Australia, (near Melbourne) to witness Friday's eventing dressage during the day and the freestyle at night.

"It's the accuracy, the precision and the ability for the rider and the horse to work as a team," Michelle said when asked what lured her. "As a rider back home, it's not that easy. All of those movements, you go, 'hey, how the hell did they do that?' You can see, to get the really elaborate movement that we see, the horses have to be right on the ball, on the aids."

While Michelle is a one-star eventer, Pam is "at the bottom grade. For my age, I need to stay there. ... At over 60, when you land, you land a bit more heavily."

Sufficiently educated in the sport, Pam Barkley gave two thumbs up to the athletes.

"To look at the precision they do and, some of those horses, the movement they have, it just flows," she said. "It's just actually incredible."

Worth a trip around the world.

This story was originally published October 2, 2010 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Toto's freestyle win pleases world."