search.noResults

search.searching

note.createNoteMessage

search.noResults

search.searching

orderForm.title

orderForm.productCode
orderForm.description
orderForm.quantity
orderForm.itemPrice
orderForm.price
orderForm.totalPrice
orderForm.deliveryDetails.billingAddress
orderForm.deliveryDetails.deliveryAddress
orderForm.noItems
en How Horses Help Her Thrive By Charlene Strickland


Ann Romney needs little introdu- tion. She’s wife to the 2012 presi- dential candidate Mitt Romney, who also previously served as governor


of Massachusetts. As


co-owner to the 2012 Olympic competitor Rafalca, ridden by Jan Ebeling, she has helped bring the sport of dressage to the forefront in North America.


pursued dressage with ferocity. “I was riding, and the rela- tionship with the horse gave me joy and wanting to come out every day,” she says. For her, riding was, and still is, both therapy and delight. “It’s such a journey with these partners, such a great feeling.” Last year was her most successful yet. Ann and her long-


A


time partner Donatello (Don Piero x Amerigo Vespucci xx) won the 2016 USDF Region 7 Adult Amateur Intermediate II Championship. They also received the 2016 USDF national year-end award at that level. Previously, their USDF rank- ing in 2013 was nineteenth at Prix St. Georges. In 2014 and 2015, at Intermediate I, they were tenth and fourteenth, respectively. In 2016 they were also ranked twelfth in the Adult Amateur Grand Prix. With her string of horses including a new horse to ride


and compete this year, Ann remains enthusiastic about life, her horses and the sport of dressage, both in the past and for the future. She took a few minutes to catch up with Warmbloods Today.


s a longtime survivor of multiple sclerosis (MS), Ann has been an inspiration to equestrians world- wide. Since her diagnosis almost 20 years ago, she’s


Two Super Partners Having ridden as a teenager, Ann was ready to resume


riding at 50. With Utah-based trainer Margo Gogan, she was able to start dressage lessons. Eventually she also started riding with Jan Ebeling, who taught monthly clinics at Margo’s. Attending the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Ann was


captivated by dressage. “I had such an education being in Sydney,” she recalls. A year later she was showing Baron Boucheron at Fourth Level. Baron was an Austrian Warmblood by the dressage sire


Balfour xx. “Baron was my first serious horse,” says Ann. “He was a very confirmed Intermediate I horse. We pushed him up to Grand Prix. I got my Grand Prix scores on Baron. He took me from total beginner all the way up to Grand Prix.” She calls him perfect for her when she was starting dres-


sage. In Germany, he’d been ridden by a young rider. “He’d shown everywhere,” says Ann. “On his passport it showed Poland, England and Russia. That was such an education for the horse to be in the show ring that much that he would take care of me. It’s so important to have a horse that knows his job.” Her equine teacher wasn’t always easy. “I really had to


learn how to ride on him. He was so honest, with such a big heart. He was my professor,” she says. Baron liked to show off, she says, sometimes in the show


ring. Ann describes starting a test in front of judge Kathy Connelly. “I was cantering up the centerline to halt and he was doing one tempis. I was not asking for anything—he was saying, ‘I’m pretty good at these, want to see? Look what I can do.’” The one-tempis were his place to go when he was nervous. “He was the horse I was the thickest with— my partner, my mental and physical partner.”


Top: Ann Romney is awarded the title of “Premier Equestrian” at the 2016 Adequan Global Dressage Festival while aboard Donatello.


Warmbloods Today 49


C A


a n


n


ct wit


h h


ni R


g o


U m


y


p


Courtesy of JRPR


Ruby2010


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92