Joaquin Orth Passed Away

Dressage

Mexico

Mexican Olympic dressage team rider Joaquin Orth has passed away suddenly on Friday 28 June 2019. He was 64 years old.

Orth suffered from an apparent stroke or heart attack. He became unwell on a horse, lost his balance and fell off. He briefly regained consciousness but then sadly collapsed and died before the ambulance reached the scene.

Joaquin Orth Balschat was born on 28 April 1955 and is originally from Syke, Germany. He was educated as a professional Pferdewirtschaftsmeister before emigrating to Mexico in 1982.

He represented Mexico at major championships between 1987 and 2003. He competed in three Central American and Caribbean Games and three Pan American Games, winning gold, four silver and three bronze medals. His first major global championship was the 1990 World Equestrian Games in Stockholm.

Orth's career making dressage horse was the Dutch warmblood gelding Bellini (by Toronto x Uppercut xx) on which he received the ride in 1995. The pair went on to represent Mexico at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and they won team gold with Mexico and individual silver at the 1997 North American Dressage Championships. Then went on to compete at the 1998 World Equestrian Games in Rome.

At the 2002 Central American and Caribbean Games he scored the individual silver medal and team gold. At the 2003 Pan American Games he earned team bronze on Belaggio after having competed the horse on the Florida scene.

In 2002 Orth became a national judge in Mexico and between 2006 and 2008 he worked as a FEI C-judge.

Orth dedicated much of his time as a dressage trainer of numerous students in Mexico and South America. He was an international Clinician in Ecuador, Guatemala, El Salvador, Columbia, Venezuela, Dominican Republic and California USA.

His most successful student was Mexican Mariana Quintana, who won team gold and individual bronze under his guidance at the 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games in Bogota.

"He was always put all his heart in every thing he did and in every thing he believed in," said Quintana. "He was always fighting for a fair sport. As a trainer he could stay hours explaining the lesson until you got the right knowledge. He wouldn’t stop; always giving you new ideas and different exercises to improve, sharing his experience and sharing stories when he rode with Klimke and all he had learned back in those days. He was a great man with the biggest heart an amazing mentor. We will miss him very, very much."

Orth is credited as a driving force in the development of dressage in Mexico.

"He really made the change in Mexico," Quintana explained. "He made dressage grow big. He gave clinics for free, worked extra hours, promoting and supporting riders. He really put his heart in every lesson, plus it was a lot of fun to train and be with."