Any sport has its own success stories, filled with ups and downs, efforts and sacrifices that, in the end, pay off in one way or another. Totem’s story is no different than that, even though he has never been to the Olympics or won any major medals, he has filled Croatian Karen Pavicic’s expectations by miles. Think about it: how many times can any of us - mortals in the dressage discipline - turn a 3-month-old colt into a solid Grand Prix citizen who can be ridden by all? That is a winning story for me.
Fate and good intuition made Karen connect with him, through his breeder, Patricia Close. The dam, Denebola (out of Donnerhall) was a mare with extraordinary rideability who got to Grand Prix trained by her amateur rider and Totilas, the sire, could almost guarantee a special colt, even though it was one of the first crops in the continent of this famous stallion. It really was a good gambling project to invest in.
The Adequan Global Dressage Festival showgrounds marked the beginning of the competition journey with the FEI 4-year-old test, back in February 2016 and, year by year, we witnessed his evolution through the levels. As a 5-year-old they were one of the demo combinations in Isabell Werth’s Masterclass in Omaha, during the World Cup Finals' Dressage Showcase.
An important first for Croatia was the winning participation of this combination in the FEI 6-year-old and 7-year-old classes. Went through the Developing Prix St. Georges Series and the Lövsta Future Challenge/Young Horse Grand Prix Series too. The Croatian national anthem was played a few times at Global all the way to Medium Tour in 2021.
The routine travel Canada (Karen’s home base) to Wellington expanded to include California, where they began their Big Tour performance with a winning ride. A big jump over the ocean landed him at Isabell Werth’s barn in Germany, where they kept developing. In 2022, with just a couple of Grand Prix tests under their belt, they qualified for the Dressage World Championships in Herning (DEN). Wisely Karen decided not to expose the green-to- Big-Tour horse to this kind of pressure, but to take advantage of their life in Europe and, while she was managing a busy travel schedule as an FEI Judge, was able to organize a comfortable participation journey in CDIs through few different locations. Achleiten, Troisdorf, Aachen and Wroclaw were the selected ones, plus balancing the learning experience at Isabell’s place was the key to solidifying him at the level. Karen said: “Even though I saw her sporadically because of her busy schedule, it was a true honor to be there and witness her horsemanship, discipline and hard work.”
2025 meant another big change: they jumped the ocean back to Wellington to compete again at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival showgrounds, where Totem proved once more his fantastic rideability being the winning horse for Evelyn Eger (GER) at the Palm Beach Derby, repeating his successful participation of years before with Christoph Koschel (GER) in 2020. As this wasn’t proof enough of his character and non-confrontational attitude, a few days later he participated in the CDI 5*, Karen’s “personal Olympics”. Being able to enjoy riding in the International Arena under the lights again was a dream come true, the last time she did was back in 2016 with Don Daiquiri.
Probably more to commend is the fact that not only did he switch easily from Small Tour to Big Tour but he was also on trial, a successful one… Totem is now sold to a wonderful home, making this a full circle story of a well-developed horse, in a winning situation for all.
