Quick Facts
Biography
Ingrid Klimke (born April 1, 1968 in Münster, Germany) is a German eventing rider. She appeared at five Olympics from 2000 to 2016. With her horse Abraxxas, she won two gold medals in team eventing at the 2008 Summer Olympics and the 2012 Summer Olympics. At the 2016 Summer Olympics, she won a team silver with Hale-Bob.
She is the daughter of equestrian Reiner Klimke. Like her father, she rides in both eventing and dressage at international events, for example, she was placed seventh at the 2002 Dressage World Cup Final with Nector van het Carelshof.
In January 2012 she was appointed to the position of "Reitmeister" (Riding Master, a special title of the German Equestrian Federation). Klimke is the second woman ever to be appointed as "Reitmeister".
Youth
Through her father, Klimke started to work with horses at a very young age.
She states that she never thought about a career in equestrianism. Since her youth she has been competing in dressage, show jumping and eventing. Her trainers were, besides her father, Fritz Ligges and Ian Millar. About her trainers she says:
- I received a consistent training from all of them, which was geared to develop an intensive bonding between horse and rider and to never overburden the horses. Being Ian Millar’s working student I learned everything about care and show jumping and I am really grateful towards my father for making that stay abroad possible.
After her school days, she began an apprenticeship as a bank clerk and afterwards she began to study to become a teacher. Later she realized that it was not possible to this and keep riding at the same time so she decided to dedicate herself to equestrianism and horse training.