Klaus Balkenhol

Klaus Balkenhol (right) and Bianca Kasselmann at the German Dressage Derby 2013

Klaus Balkenhol (born December 6, 1939 in Velen ) is a German dressage rider and trainer .

Career

Klaus Balkenhol was born the third of four siblings. The family lived on Good Ross , where his father worked as a manager and also horses bred. After school, Klaus Balkenhol completed an agricultural apprenticeship on his parents' farm, which he followed up with training with the police due to the uncertain future in agriculture. Through the agricultural training, which also included field work with horses, the contact with horses arose early, which was deepened in the evening in the riding club.

As a police officer, Balkenhol received the Hanoverian fox gelding Rabauke as a strip horse in 1971 . From books and from watching, he taught him dressage lessons up to high school . The move to tournament dressage came late and rather by chance. At the age of 38, Klaus Balkenhol wanted to take part in a dressage course as a police rider and tried to get an invitation to Warendorf. During this course he was discovered by Willi Schultheis , who named him, along with Rabauke, one of the eight best couples in Germany. The course led to great changes in Balkenhol's life. At the Ministry of the Interior, Schultheis ensured that Balkenhol was able to compete with Rabauke at national and international dressage tournaments and that he received funding from the German Equestrian Association .

Klaus Balkenhol is a founding member of Xenophon eV, founded in 2006 - Society for the Preservation and Promotion of Classic Riding Culture . He was first vice chairman, later first chairman. In November 2012 he resigned from the chair for reasons of age.

equestrian

Balkenhol celebrated his first major successes with Rabauke in 1979 as German runner-up and team champion of dressage riders, as well as second in the German dressage derby. In addition, Klaus Balkenhol was part of the Olympic team. Rabauke was the most successful horse in the dressage world rankings in 1979.

With his superior Werner Vatter, Balkenhol discovered the Westphalian fox gelding Goldstern in 1981 on a tour of the remonting department of the Cologne riding school . Like a bully, Goldstern was a police horse who, in addition to his training, was also used in carnival parades and football games. Goldstern's difficult temper made the training relatively long, but in 1991 the breakthrough came with numerous titles, medals and trophies. At the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona both had their greatest success to date: Olympic gold in the team championship. Klaus Balkenhol was awarded the Silver Laurel Leaf by the then Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker . In 1994 he won the world championship in the team competition and won the European championship team gold in Mondorf. The crowning glory was winning the individual world championship silver in The Hague . In 1996 Balkenhol and Goldstern once again won the gold medal together with the German team at the Olympic Games in Atlanta as well as sixth place in the individual ranking. The chestnut gelding was retired from the big sport in 1999 at the Equitana in Essen.

Trainer

Klaus Balkenhol has been training Nadine Capellmann since 1992 , to whom he passed Gracioso on, with whom she was able to achieve a place in the German dressage team for the first time.

Until the end of 2000, Balkenhol was the leading national dressage trainer in Germany. During his time, the German team was able to win team gold twice at European championships and once each at world championships and the Olympic Games. In addition, there was an Olympic silver and bronze medal in the individual evaluation, a gold and bronze medal at the world championship, and gold, silver and bronze at the European championships.

From 2001 to the end of 2008 he trained the US dressage riders, with whom he was able to achieve team silver at the World Equestrian Games in Jerez de la Frontera and team bronze at the Olympic Games in Athens .

Since November 2008 he has been training Nadine Capellmann again. He also trains Laura Bechtolsheimer and his daughter Anabel Balkenhol, among others .

successes

singles

German championships

1st place: 1991, 1992, 1993, 1995

2nd place: 1979, 1990

Vice-European Freestyle Champion 1991

Bronze Olympic Games 1992

Vice world champion freestyle 1994

6th place Olympic Games 1996

team

Gold Olympic Games 1992 and 1996

European champion in 1993 and 1995

World Champion 1994

Awards

1992 - Silver bay leaf

1992 - Bambi

1997 - Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia

2011 - riding master

Web links

• Official website
• Klaus Balkenhol in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Xenophon eV

Individual evidence

1. ^ Klaus Balkenhol resigns from Xenophon , Reiter Revue International , 23 November 2012
2. ↑ Message "Klaus Balkenhol: End as US-Trainer" on www.horseweb.de ( Memento of the original from November 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Short biography Nadine Capellmann ( Memento from September 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ Merit holders since 1986. State Chancellery of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, accessed on March 11, 2017 . 
5. ↑ Klaus Balkenhol appointed riding master , Susanne Hennig / Deutsche Reiterliche Vereinigung , November 19, 2011