Antonio Piraino, Chilean Dressage Olympian, Passed Away

Dressage

Chile

Antonio Piraino Valenzuela, Chile's representative in dressage at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico, has passed away. He was 91 years old.

Active in equestrian sport for more than 65 years, Antonio was a versatile horse rider, competing in show jumping and eventing, but his passion was for dressage.

Piraino was a cavalry officer at the Army Riding School in Quillota and climbed the ladder to become Riding Master and Master of Master.

Dressage Career Highlights

He became a national dressage champion at all levels.

The highpoint came when he represented Chile at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico, where he finished fifth with the Chilean team and 20th individually on Ciclon.

In 1971 he won individual and team silver at the Pan American Games in Cali.

Well Respected Trainer

After his riding career, Piraino went on to coach numerous children and youth teams from Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia in dressage and show jumping. He captained the Ecuadorean dressage team at the 1983 Pan American Games in Caracas and the Peruvian dressage team at the 1991 Pan American Games in Havana.

"He has this great ability to train horses and had a special gift that made him understand the horses very well," his son Max Piraino Lyon told Eurodressage "He got the best disposition from his equine partners and their will to do the highly demanding exercises."

Piraino has trained over 100 horses, many of them to Grand Prix level. As a head of the Army Riding School he coached hundreds of riders in Chile, Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador.

Piraino also worked as an international judge.

Legacy

Piraino leaves behind two children, Max and Alejandra, and four grand children. Son Max is a 3* dressage judge and Grand Prix rider. He represented Chile at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara. Grand daughter Sol Piraino is a Chilean dressage champion.

"We are so grateful for everything and will miss him every day," his children Max and Alejandra stated. "We thank him for sharing his passion for dressage and teaching us so much, with so much generosity, managing to respect the nature of horses and make us better people. We loved him deeply."