Was it a good price? I can’t even imagine!
Jeeeeesh. How old was he at the time? Uthopia was sold for £165,000 (just over $230,000) as a 15yo. Not as prolific but still an Olympic stallion.
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I’m no expert on breeding and judging a stallion’s impact, but his offspring and their progeny seem to be making a pretty big splash as they move up the levels.
As I’ve posted before, my understanding is that part of the reason Schockemohle paid up was to weaken the Dutch team and prevent them from beating the Germans and winning at the 2012 Olympics. Then, of course, Dujardin came along and beat them both…but Germany did finish ahead of the Netherlands, albeit without Totilas, so Mission Accomplished, sorta.
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As I recall, he earned half his sale price the next year in stud fees. He was 8k a pop, and was in the breeding shed all the time, which no doubt led to significant wear and tear on a horse who already had soundness issues before leaving the dutch team.
What a tremendous temperament he had to continue to try and try for people, even as his team sought to make more and more and more money in breedings.
And yes, he has a lot of successful progeny and now progeny of progeny.
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I don’t know enough about anyone involved to make a solid judgment one way or another. Damn does all of this make me so sad. He was my favorite 
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Super interesting!
I just can’t imagine having that much expendable funds… he must have truly been some horse.
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If that’s right then he would have had to have been used 593,750 times to make half his sale value in stud fees. 
Either way, a very sad and greedy life for a horse who clearly had a very big heart and will to please his humans.
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Oh WOW my maths is bad… I meant 593.75 times!! Which is considerably less but still more than once a day.
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For three years - and he was collected and frozen during his competition years going back to 2010.
I don’t think it’s anywhere near impossible that there would be 600 breedings over a 10 year period. The most prolific stallions on the European registers have north of 150 foals a year.
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Is that documented somewhere? I know people who have bought and sold international GP horses who are in their mid teens for more than twice that amount. Those 2-6 years left of a competition career are incredibly valuable for a horse of that caliber.
The idea that an intact international horse of that caliber would sell for so little seems highly improbable unless it was essentially done as a gift to the buyer.
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Found an article reference. Wow, someone got an unbelievably good deal!
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But the stallion owner gets more than one usable dose per “collection”, doesn’t he?
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Yes. And most serious breeders also order more than one dose per insemination attempt, and then brokers order many doses for resale.
I have done the tour at several thoroughbred farms in Kentucky, and some of those stallions will cover three mares a day throughout the breeding season.
Of course, live cover is probably a bit different than what would have happened with Totilas. But some of those stallions stay pretty busy.
Whoever it was allowed him to stay with Carl Hester and essentially retire, so they got a good deal and so did the horse 
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Ann-Kathrin Lisenhoff purchased the showing rights from Schockemohle for her step-son Mathias Rath. That probably contributed to the purchasing price.
Uthopias sale was not exactly run of the mill. He was involved in an ownership/banruptcy dispute.
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