The Conservative Cave
Current Events => The DUmpster => Topic started by: AprilRazz on June 18, 2012, 06:22:29 AM
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014145988
Faygo Kid (19,148 posts)
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Ann Romney's horse and trainer qualify for U.S. Olympic team
Source: Los Angeles Times
Ann Romney’s dressage horse, Rafalca, and her trainer, Jan Ebeling, earned a place on the U.S. Olympic Equestrian team on Saturday, cementing the Romneyfamily’s already deep ties to the Olympic games. The official announcement is expected to come Sunday by the U.S. Equestrian Federation.
Rafalca and Ebeling will compete for the U.S. in the London Summer Games.
The Romneys’ involvement in dressage has raised the profile of the sport, linking it to the American presidential campaign in a way that has brought both adulation and mild ridicule as some have poked fun at dressage as a sport of the elite.
Kenneth Braddick of Dressage News said Ebeling had “the best performance of his life†Saturday at the second of two Olympic trials at the U.S. Equestrian Federation national dressage championships in Gladstone, N.J. In a post on the website, Dressage News, Braddick wrote that Ebling has also taken in stride the ribbing he’s gotten from comedians such as Stephen Colbert.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-ann-romney-horse-trainer-qualify-for-us-olympic-team-20120616,0,1966631.story
Whew, I was so worried about this. God knows that dressage is at the top of Americans' concerns right now, and only the GOP has the sense to nominate a candidate who appreciates the dressage crisis we face in competing with the rest of the world.
JDPriestly (31,782 posts)
41. The thing about the dressage horse is that it represents visually the disparity in wealth
between the Romneys and most Americans.
This is not about education. It's not a question of liking classical music or opera.
Most American girls around 12 or 13 and a lot of boys dream of owning and riding a horse.
Their families couldn't dream of affording it. The most they can do is maybe if they are pretty prosperous, purchase a few riding lessons for their daughters.
The Obamas are not poor, and their girls may take riding lessons -- but the cost of buying, feeding, housing and then racing a horse?
This dressage business is like a dagger in the heart of every American parent who can barely afford to feed his or her child, maybe send the child to a summer camp for a couple of weeks (if they are lucky) or give the child a few basketball or music or art lessons.
Spending money on your dressage habit is symbolic for the kind of waste that the rich indulge in when they get additional tax cuts. This story is a double-edged sword for Romney.
Brigid (7,777 posts)
49. I know.
I had just read that thread before I read this one. It's absolutely ridiculous. I hope they lose, and lose big.
As someone that was not financially well endowed and managed to compete successfully at international levels in 3 day eventing I have to laugh at their attempts to smear Romney.
But I am a little surprised that the great and all knowing nads hasn't come in to educate us poor stupid masses.
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I see they still haven't gotten their "Obama Pony" yet.
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JDPriestly (31,782 posts)
41. The thing about the dressage horse is that it represents visually the disparity in wealth
between the Romneys and most Americans.
(http://theblacksphere.net/wp-content/uploads/Isabelle.jpg)
We can all relate to this though can't we? and this -
(http://instantinformationsensation.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/kennedy.jpg)
The Kennedys are after all a large Irish clan and need the space. They are JUST like you and I.
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Jackie’s love of horses started at an early age. As a child of six, she began schooling in dressage—the art of controlling a horse with subtle movements of the hands, legs, and weight. She kept a horse at Miss Porter’s, the boarding school she attended in Farmington, Connecticut. It was her Vassar classmate Gay Estin who encouraged her to get a hunt box—a weekend house with a small barn and paddock—in Virginia.
http://www.amazon.com/Farewell-Jackie-Portrait-Final-Days/dp/product-description/0670033316
Jackie's was a Republican out of touch with the needs of the people? who knew?
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I wonder how much the Kennedys and Lurch (did you know he served in Vietnam?) avoided in "their fair share" of taxes by having all the family assets in trust or simply parking them in Rhode Island.
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Well of Obama hadn't killed the economy then more people could afford horses.
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Congrats to Rafalca for qualifying!
I have a friend with a blue-collar, working class background. She competes in dressage. It's not just for the elite. But, that was funny about Jackie Kennedy.
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According to the NBC morning show this morning, Ann Romney got into horses to fight her MS.
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