Talk about hack-journalism. Paul, if this was Michelle Obama's horse you either would not have covered it or gushed over how exciting it was her horse would be going to London and how wonderful of a "sport" dressage is/was.

Try to stick to real issues. You're sound like Fox News.

Do they also strap the horse to the top of their car when they go on road trips?

I would like this sport better if the horses competed on a course secured to the top deck of a yacht , and that yacht was also racing against other yachts that had their own equestrian events taking place on top of them, and the winning team received a solid gold trophy in the shape of a life-size angel.

You would not read about Michelle Obama's horse because equestrian activities like dressage, show jumping, harness racing, polo, etc. are the diversions of the aristocracy and not South Side activities.

I would expect to read a post about Michele Obama sending her collection of double-dutch ropes to compete in the Olympic rope jumping championship, especially if it meant she had ropes that cost a few thousand dollars and required thousands of dollars a year in upkeep, acres of land, a full-time staff for grooming, feeding, and care, etc.

And of course @5, Mrs. Romney totally does all that work her little-ole' self, because, you know, those are just the sorts of tasks you'd expect a HARD-WORKING STAY-AT-HOME MOM to undertake on a daily basis.

It's true; dressage is quite boring unless you are a Horse Person, in which case it is a chance to go and show off to all the other Horse People how pretty you and your pony are together. It was anime conventions before there were anime nerds.

Dressage is a rural sport, not just an aristocratic one. It costs money, sure, but most sports do once you start getting competitive.

People who live on farms and in rural areas can acquire and house horses relatively cheaply. Once you get over that hurdle it isnt that much different from bike racing or gymnastics in that you spend time and money proportionally to skill and competative level.

So the Romneys have a good horse. Doesn't make the sport a bad one... It is kinder and prettier than racing.

For the record, I hated dressage well before I learned of the Romneys or their association with it.

I was hating dressage as far back as 2004 when someone came to my home and made me watch dressage in Athens. That person is no longer welcome in my home.

Dressage is NASCAR for rich people...

"Prettier than racing"?

I think the sight of two MotoGP racers cornering side-by-side, knees dragging, is pretty frickin' beautiful.

You will also be pleased to know that you, yes you!, as an American taxpayer had a hand in this triumph for Ann Romney’s lavish lifestyle choice, because your tax dollars helped to make up the difference in tax dollars that Ann & Mitt Romney didn’t have to pay in order to represent America in London:

Mr. Ebeling denied in his deposition in the lawsuit that Mrs. Romney was his financial sponsor. “Not really,” he said.

But Mrs. Romney was clear on the matter: she supports him in his competitive career. “It gives Jan an opportunity for him to present my horses at upper-level dressage,” she said.

On the Romneys’ 2010 tax returns, they reported a loss of $77,000 for their share of the partnership that owns Mr. Ebeling’s top mount, Rafalca. Mrs. Romney owns the horse with Ms. Ebeling and a Romney friend, Beth Meyers. Sponsorship arrangements are not unusual in dressage, where riders who want to climb to the top look to wealthy backers.
http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2012/06/12/…

And the horse continued not to give a fuck, 'cause it was a horse.

how, exactly, does owning a dressage horse help one's MS?

@8- My family was relatively poor and we had a horse. It does happen. We got the horse for free because it had fucked up it's front knee, so it couldn't jump anymore. We built a one stall barn out of scrap lumber and tree trunks. It was a financial hardship to keep the guy in feed through the winter, in the summer there was plenty of grass.

Dressage is something rich people do with horses. It's the yacht race of equestrian events. Poor people with horses might barrel race, if they have a working trailer to take their horse to an event with.

Comparing equestrian events to any other (non-motor) sport is silly, because it is always more expensive to maintain an athlete and a large, fragile animal than it is to maintain just an athlete.

@14- Ann Romney rides, which seems to help her MS. Of course, you don't need to sponsor an Olympic team just to ride a horse, but when you have 21 million dollars of income in a bad year I suppose it's hard not to spend extravagantly.

Hip Hop Dressage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knCj92zA0…

I'm excited for the Pentathlon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_pent…

As the events of the ancient pentathlon were modeled after the skills of the ideal soldier of that time, Coubertin created the contest to simulate the experience of a 19th century cavalry soldier behind enemy lines: he must ride an unfamiliar horse, fight with pistol and sword, swim, and run.

First, riding is hardly a sport for the idle rich alone. Like anything else, it's much easier to rise quickly to the top if you throw enough money at it, but the same could be said for almost anything.
Second, dressage is practiced by all sorts of people. 4-H even has a program for it. The basic principles can be applied to any discipline, and a lot of trainers use it to teach flexibility. It's a sport about very fine control, and while it might be boring to watch, that's kind of the point. Making something appear effortless is quite a bit of work.
Third, I'm not a Romney fan. But I've been riding since I was 10, and at 21, I can credit it was a lot of what made me the person I am today. Horses have a tendency towards the unexpected, and will spook at a grocery bag and stomp on your foot regardless of what your last name is or how much you paid for them. So good on Mrs. Romney for buying one, because it probably is the only reason she possesses any humility at all.

thanks for that, jen :-)

@16: would bicycle riding and petting a kitteh, if mormons are allowed to pet kittehs, give her the same benefit? it seems like a stretch to justify her rich lady hobby.

@16 and @20: Riding as therapy for MS and other conditions (muscular dystrophy, Downs syndrome) is nothing new. My grandmother loved horses, had MS, and founded Little Bit Therapeutic Riding Center right here in the Pacific Northwest.

@21
Little Bit is A+++

Thank you @18. I am decidedly middle income and have ridden my entire life. I manage to pay for my horse and compete in dressage on my very middle class salary. I'm not competing internationally, but we are successful at the upper levels of the sport in our region. Anyone competing at an international level in any sport has the support of very wealthy donors (or their government). It's not cheap regardless of what you do, I don't know why dressage would be different. I'm certainly no fan of the Romney's but they are entitled to do what they please with their money and their investment keeps a good number of working class people employed - trainers, vets,farriers, grooms, barn workers, to name just a few.

@16 & @20 - If you don't understand what the therapeutic benefits of riding are you really need to volunteer for a semester at Little Bit. The change mentally, emotionally, and physically in the students (both kids and adults) there is absolutely unbelievable. My good friend has a neuro-muscular disorder that rendered her unable to even walk during college. As a lifelong rider and former Little Bit volunteer she returned there as a student when her condition was diagnosed. Thanks to equine therapy in combination with other medical care you would barely know that she has a disability. Horses have given her the opportunity to not only walk but to do other great things in her life. As we speak she is riding in a competition to qualify for the Paralympics this summer. Do a YouTube search for Para-Equestrian Dressage and you will see countless videos of other athletes like her who are doing amazing and inspiring things... Things most of us could never hope to achieve if we were in their position.

@23- "I am decidedly middle income and have ridden my entire life. I manage to pay for my horse and compete in dressage on my very middle class salary."

What is your household income? If it was very middle class, that would make it about $45,000, as that's the median household income in America.

@24- Competitive Dressage is to keeping your horse fit as powerlifting is to going to the gym.

@25 - I'm not going to disclose my tax return but it is in that region. I am fortunate enough to have landed in an industry that *should* offer good growth potential but at the moment I'm very much middle of the road.

@27- That's your household, not your personal? Do you have kids?

Many of the moves made by horses and riders practicing dressage are used in crowd control police work. Most large cities around the world still have mounted police. Dressage is much more than a sport for the idle rich.

God bless you Christopher Frizzell but you obviously don't know anything about Dressage. It is a sport but also a training method that trains the horse to round his/her back so that they are able to move more naturally and comfortably under saddle. This is a foundational training method that is used for all disciplines not just the Olympics. It is used in almost every barn on the planet and is not just for the rich. The goal for all horse owners is obviously to have a horse that is well behaved and controllable (because horses have the potential to seriously hurt you). So, it is used as an aid to assist in accomplishing that goal. I agree that the higher training levels are more like ballet, which I think is pretty cool. But, you are obviously not a horse person so you wouldn't understand. :-)