Klaus Balkenhol (born 6 December 1939 in Velen) is a German

equestrian The word equestrian is a reference to equestrianism, or horseback riding, derived from Latin ' and ', "horse". Horseback riding (or Riding in British English) Examples of this are: * Equestrian sports *Equestrian order, one of the upper classes i ...

and Olympic champion. He won a gold medal in team dressage at the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

with the team from Germany. Balkenhol is the author of several dressage books. He is an avid member of Xenophen, and like Philippe Karl petitions against the use of

rollkur Rollkur or hyperflexion of the horse's neck is defined as "flexion of the horse's neck achieved through aggressive force" and is banned in International and Olympic sanctioned equestrian sports by the governing body, the International Federation f ...

. Balkenhol's earlier riding career consisted of being a

mounted police Mounted police are police who patrol on horseback or camelback. Their day-to-day function is typically picturesque or ceremonial, but they are also employed in crowd control because of their mobile mass and height advantage and increasingly in t ...

man. He was also the coach of the U.S. Olympic team."1992 Summer Olympics – Barcelona, Spain – Equestrian"
''databaseOlympics.com'' (Retrieved on 21 September 2008) He also received a gold medal with the German team in 1996.
''databaseOlympics.com'' (Retrieved on 21 September 2008) At present Balkenhol is the trainer of Olympic equestrian Laura Bechtolsheimer.

References

Bibliography

* 1939 births Living people German dressage riders Olympic equestrians of Germany German male equestrians Equestrians at the 1992 Summer Olympics Equestrians at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Germany Olympic bronze medalists for Germany Olympic medalists in equestrian Dressage trainers Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics {{Germany-equestrian-bio-stub