Upon entering major competition at age five, he was ridden by Jiska van den Akker and exhibited at the 2005 World Breeding Championships for Young Horses at Verden, Germany.

[6] In 2006, after Gal began working with the horse, his sponsors Cees (also spelled Kees) and Tosca Visser purchased Totilas in the name of their investment company, Moorland BV.

[11] In December 2009, at the fourth leg of the 2009–10 FEI World Cup Dressage series at Olympia in London, they extended their record in GP Freestyle to 92.30%, more than 10 points above the second-place finisher.

[16] Critics claimed that his extravagant paces were not natural, but rather a product of harmful training, accusing Totilas' trainers of artificially inflating dressage scores and corrupting the fundamentals of the sport.

[17][18] The head of the World Cup judging panel at the Olympia competition in London dismissed such criticism, saying, "People should be big enough to recognise brilliance when they see it.

[20] At the World Equestrian Games, Gal strongly denied that the horse was for sale, but his owners stated that after his wins at the WEG, "we could no longer ignore the interest in the stallion.

[30] Further controversy arose in October 2012, when the German branch of PETA filed a legal complaint against Rath, Schockemöhle and Linsenhoff, alleging that Totilas was being abused due to the use of rollkur in his training and management that kept him confined in a box stall, isolated from other horses.

PETA alleged that the horse's treatment violated the free-movement requirements of the German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture, and Consumer Protection.

Shortly afterwards, Rath became ill with mononucleosis and withdrew from competition at CHIO Aachen in June and subsequently from the German Olympic team.

[32] They then moved to the Netherlands to work with Sjef Janssen, coach of the Dutch team and of gold medalist Anky van Grunsven, presumably to obtain experience in the training techniques that Totilas was familiar with while in the care of Gal.

Aachen was Totilas' final competition; a subsequent MRI scan showed bone inflammation in his left hind hoof and he was retired in August 2015.

[38] Moorlands Totilas was sired by a Trakehner stallion, Gribaldi, that was approved by KWPN, the Dutch Warmblood registry, and noted for elegance and refinement.

[17] Toto's dam, Lominka, a KWPN-approved Dutch Warmblood, came from bloodlines that have produced both show jumping and dressage horses, many of whom were noted for good temperament.