next eight weeks, but I started bonding with him after a few rides. He’s very honest.” Ann’s also riding Darling (Donnerhall x Amerigo
Vespucci xx), an Oldenburg she showed to fifth place in the 2015 USDF Region 7 Adult Amateur Prix St. Georges Cham- pionship. She’s now schooling him Grand Prix. “I’m trying to get him in the Grand Prix ring, but we’re
not ready yet,” she says. “I need to ride him every step in the show ring. This horse is the opposite of Donatello— he needs the energy. He’s fine in trot, passage and piaffe. I don’t have enough energy in the canter.” Jan showed Darling in Grand Prix in 2016, winning third
place in the Grand Prix Championship at the USDF Region 7 Championship. Ann says that even though the riders are top-notch in
Florida she’s not feeling any pressure. “I’m having a good time. Once you’ve ridden Grand Prix, it’s all you want to do. It’s so much more fun and so much more challenging.”
Horses and Healing Discussing her MS, Anne admits that she’s one of those
really rare stories. “I know where I was and where I now am. I am now completely in remission. I have no discernible weakness. Before, I had lost complete use of my right leg. Now I have gotten it back,” she says. She believes horses can be partners in healing. “Baron
was for sure. Donatello was better, but we developed that relationship where we were there for each other. We could develop that feeling of joy,” she says. “There was no way I could have ridden Donatello when I
An Interview Sixteen Years Ago I
n an interview back in 2001, Ann listed the horses the Romneys had accumulated. “We have six horses now: two in California with Jan, two in Utah with Margo, and two trail horses to
go into the mountains in Utah.” Also in 2001, Ann and Baron qualified for the USDF Region 5 Championship. They competed in Fourth Level in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and were Reserve Champion. Ann recalled that at the same show her horse husband Mitt gallantly rescued her. “Mitt ran out to save me when my horse was flipping out. I was on Baron. He would flip a
switch and you would have to get off. It happened so rarely,” she said. At that time, she’d only been riding for two and a half years and was convinced that her riding had become an impor- tant part of her therapy. Ann met her second mentor, Jan Ebeling, when he taught at her coach Margo Gogan’s
was weaker. He would not have been a good partner for me then. Baron was.” And now, in 2017, she’s ready to continue her education. “Now I have graduated to a more difficult horse to ride. Now I have to be even stronger. You have to be strong in order to be light. Get as light as you can possi- bly get. That is the fine line.” Mastering the connection with the horse is her biggest
challenge, she says. “Trying to get the perfect connection, which you can only have for two or three rides, then you go back and try to get it again. To get the connection quicker, that connection of having the horse really in front of you and quick to the aids—that’s what keeps me coming back every day, getting it more refined.” Then she adds, “You’re never there; you can always get better. If it was easy, I would have quit 15 years ago.” Dressage continues to be Ann’s passion. “I am
completely so engaged in riding, that when I go to see someone else ride, I want to ride. I just want to get into the saddle. It’s beautiful to watch but put me in the saddle, please. I’m done with that watching stuff. I just want to get on,” she remarks with a laugh. As for her mare Rafalca, who competed in the 2012
Olympic Games, she became a mother in 2016, foaling the filly Rafaela by the KWPN stallion Connaisseur. Ann is also proud of the Ann Romney Center for Neuro-
logic Diseases, launched in 2014 at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She’s written about her horses and her MS in her book, In This Together: My Story. Her advice to others with MS? “If there’s anyone out there who is struggling with MS, get on a horse and gallop.”
barn, Hilltop Dressage. Jan had shown the KWPN gelding Gucci at the 1998 USET Festival of Champions, winning Reserve Champion Intermediate I. Ann bought the horse in 2000, after watching top horses at the Sydney Olympics. “You see something as good at the Olympics, and you know what kind of quality you’re looking for in a horse,” said Ann. “Gucci had it. He was so competitive, and Jan is a fabulous trainer.” She also remarked at that time she was looking forward to showing Gucci herself, which she eventually did in 2003. “When Ann first came to the barn, she couldn’t go five minutes without taking a break,” Margo remembered. Ann reported that riding increased her energy level. “I would get on the horse and forget that I was sick. I would feel
fabulous. I would have energy for an hour after I rode. Then six months later, I would have energy for two or three hours after I rode.” “My passion for learning how to ride was fierce. I couldn’t get enough fast enough.”
Warmbloods Today 51
Margo Gogan compet- ing Ann’s first Warmblood Gucci back in 2001.
Charlene Strickland
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