Klaus
Balkenhol

From Farm Boy to Mounted Policeman

Klaus Balkenhol is a German dressage rider and coach whose career is one of the most unusual in the sport — a working policeman who rose to Olympic gold on horses he trained himself, and who later became one of the most respected national team coaches in the world. He is also widely admired as a defender of classical, humane training methods.

Balkenhol was born on December 6, 1939, in Velen, Germany, and grew up on a family farm, where he learned to work with heavy horses from an early age. Rather than ordinary national service, he joined the Düsseldorf police force and became a mounted policeman, and it was during his years patrolling on horseback that his interest in dressage took hold. He was mentored by trainers including Willi Schultheis, and made his first mark in the sport on his self-trained police horse Rabauke.

The Police Horse Who Won Olympic Gold

Balkenhol's defining partnership was with Goldstern, a Westphalian gelding owned by the German police, whom he trained while the horse also performed daily patrol duty on the streets and bridle paths of Düsseldorf. The story of a uniformed policeman competing against the sport's most expensive horses captured the public imagination across Germany.

Together, Balkenhol and Goldstern won Olympic team gold at the 1992 Barcelona Games — where Balkenhol also took the individual bronze — and again at the 1996 Atlanta Games. At the 1994 World Equestrian Games in The Hague they claimed team gold and individual silver in the freestyle, and they added European team golds in 1991, 1993, and 1995 along with multiple German national titles. In recognition of the partnership, the German police later gave Goldstern to Balkenhol as a gift for his 60th birthday.

• Olympic team gold — 1992 Barcelona and 1996 Atlanta (Goldstern)
• Olympic individual bronze — 1992 Barcelona (Goldstern)
• World Equestrian Games — team gold and individual silver, 1994 The Hague
• European Championship team gold — 1991, 1993, 1995
• Multiple German national dressage champion
• German national dressage team coach — team gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics
• Coach of the United States dressage team (mid-2000s)
• Author and leading advocate of classical dressage training

Building Champions for Two Nations

After his competitive career, Balkenhol became national trainer for the German dressage team, guiding it to team gold at the 2000 Sydney Olympics before resigning the post in 2001. He then took on the role of coach to the United States dressage team, working with riders such as Guenter Seidel, Steffen Peters, Debbie McDonald, and Leslie Morse, and helping lead the U.S. to championship medals including the 2004 Olympic team bronze.

He later returned to German service as a senior team chef d'équipe and has continued to teach and coach internationally. His daughter, Anabel Balkenhol, has competed for Germany as an Olympic dressage rider.

A Voice for Classical Training

Balkenhol is regarded as one of the foremost champions of classical dressage — an approach he describes as a system of education that safeguards the horse's strength and well-being, achieving harmony, balance, and trust through mild and sensitive aids rather than force. Drawing on principles traced back to Xenophon, he has been one of the most influential voices against rollkur, the controversial practice of extreme hyperflexion of the horse's neck.

The author of several books on training, Balkenhol built his philosophy on the long hours he spent in the saddle as a policeman — an experience he credits with giving him a deep, patient understanding of the horse. His belief that ordinary horses can reach the highest level through correct, sympathetic training remains his enduring legacy.