Hiroshi Hoketsu

Hiroshi Hoketsu (Japanese法 华 津 寛, Hoketsu Hiroshi, born March 28, 1941 in Tokyo) is a Japanese dressage rider, who is considered the best of his sport in his home country and has won numerous tournaments.

He studied at the prestigious Keio University and during a stay abroad at Duke University in the United States and co-workers was then at Ortho Diagnostic, a Japanese subsidiary of the U.S. pharmaceutical and consumer goods manufacturer Johnson & Johnson. Throughout his career, he rose to become chairman of the company. In 2003 he retired.

In the Summer Olympics 1964 in Tokyo Hoketsu ran as a member of the jumping team. At the age of 42 years, he noted that he had due to failing eyesight difficulties in estimating distances correctly, and moved on to dressage. After his retirement, he decided to focus his attention on the sport and moved to train to Aachen 2003. There he is supervised by Ton de Ridder. In April, he obtained the qualification for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where he was the oldest participant in a tournament in Osnabrück.

Also at the World Equestrian Games in 2010, he took part in this he was with Whisper as the best Japanese 31 in the individual standings ( Grand Prix Spécial ), the team reached the 13th place.

At the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London Hoketsu joined with Whisper again in dressage on, he was like in 2008, the oldest of all participating athletes.