Who's Who

Lörke, Otto

Discipline : Dressage Master

Born : 1879

Died : 1957

 

Otto Lörke made such an impression during his military service that he was appointed to Emperor Wilhelm II’s personal guard with responsibility for training the imperial horses.

In 1920 he set up a riding centre in Berlin that produced very successful horses. In 1936, he joined the cavalry riding school, where he trained the gold medalists Heinz Pollay and Kronos, and the silver pair, Friedrich Gerhard and Absinthe (Alois Podhajsky was third on Nero). During this period he also contributed to the development of Felix Bürkner’s school quadrille.

After the Second World War, Lörke was based at the farm of Clemens Freiherr von Nagel in North-Rhine Westphalia, where he continued to train both horse and rider. At the 1956 Olympics, of the German silver medal trio of female riders – Liselott Linsenhoff and Adular, Hannelore Weygand and Perkunos and Anneliese Küppers and Afrika – Lörke was the trainer of two, and his pupil, Willi Schultheis, trained the other.

REF: Otto Lörke and his influence (June 2007)