...
Because he's a Dutch Warmblood. Seriously. He's good, but not, not, not better than Fuego XII
who is a Pura Raza Española, or Rubi
who is a Lusitano, and, actually, performs perfectly more difficult moves than either Fuego or Totilas. But the judges aren't having it. I'm not a hunnert percent certain, but I don't think either Fuego or Rubi has ever scored higher on a dressage test than Totilas... or not when they were showing against him... and there is only one reason for this. The judges are snobs against Andalusian horses. That's it. That's the entire problem. And it's ludicrous because dressage itself has its pinnacle in the Spanish Riding School.
But don't fuck with the Anglo-Germanic elite's lock on the sport. Fine to have your little dazzling expositions on your home turf, but if you want to compete on the international circuit, you can't be riding your goddam superior horses. They're not having it. They're fried they can't skew the rankings to leave the Spanish and Portuguese horses completely out of the ribbons.
They're jackasses.
In fact, if Luisa Valença
would only deign to leave Indonesia with Vittorio, Lusitano, she might blow them all out of the water... but... I think maybe she sees the handwriting on the wall and has better things to do.
