Dressage Makes Ann Romney's Soul Sing

Every adult amateur knows how tough it can be to fit riding into a busy lifestyle. But the demands of Ann Romney’s schedule would make her fellow competitors’ collective heads spin.

She’s raised five boys, doted after 11 grandchildren, managed charity programs at both state and national levels and played an increasingly active role in her husband Mitt Romney three—first Senate, then gubernatorial and now presidential—political campaigns.

Along the way she’s beaten back multiple sclerosis, a debilitating disease that, nine years ago, left her bed-ridden and in despair.

In the rarefied world of upper-level dressage, Romney has achieved goals many amateurs only dream of. Riding her beloved Baron, a 19-year-old, Austrian Warmblood gelding, and coached by her long-time trainer and friend Jan Ebeling, Romney earned her U.S. Dressage Federation silver and gold medals in 2006. That same year, she was the New England Dressage Association Adult Amateur Champion at Grand Prix level, on a score of 63.33 percent.
 
“I’m just like any other crazy horse person,” she said. “You find a way to make the time to ride. If I have to get up at 5 a.m. to fly to California and then ride until 10 p.m. at night, because that’ll be my only chance to ride for a month, then that’s what I’ll do.”

Even the intense demands of her husband’s presidential campaign haven’t kept Ann out of the saddle. “I laid down the law after Mitt announced that, I’d have to ride once a week, or else,” she explained. “The crazy breakneck pace of my life is not a natural rhythm for me. It’s the soothing rhythm of horses and riding that sings to my soul.”

Life Changes On The Road To Utah

Growing up in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., Ann had ridden as a girl, “in a backyard, for-fun sort of way,” she recalled. As a young teen, she saw the Lipizzaner stallions perform on tour, an experience she would never forget.

“I knew there was some magical, special connection between horse and rider,” she explained.

But marriage, motherhood, and the busy lifestyle prompted by Mitt’s burgeoning business career in Boston, Mass., left not a moment free for riding.

Finally, in 1998, when her children were older, Ann found time to take two riding lessons at a local stable near her Belmont, Mass., home, the image of those white stallions still firmly implanted in her psyche.

“I thought, ‘I’m too old to jump now, so why don’t I learn to ride like that?’ ” Ann recalled. “I really thought that I’d get it in a couple of lessons. My goodness, I couldn’t even learn my diagonals—I had to learn to ride all over again.”

Then suddenly, and dramatically, Ann’s life changed.

Mitt accepted the position as CEO for the Salt Lake City Olympics, necessitating a temporary move to Utah. Then one fall morning, Ann woke up with numbness on her right side and suffered exhaustion, symptoms that were quickly diagnosed as multiple sclerosis.

“I had raised five boys, juggled everything at once, and suddenly I couldn’t take care of myself,” Ann remembered. “It was devastating.”

Her condition worsened rapidly; she found herself in a hospital and began intravenous steroid treatment, which ultimately stalled the progression of her disease. Ann also used alternative therapies—reflexology, acupuncture, yoga and meditation—to manage her condition.

She insisted upon following Mitt to Salt Lake City in the spring of 1999 and, fearing that her disease might soon incapacitate her, began riding again. To her and her doctors’ amazement, she discovered that
“riding was the best possible physical and emotional therapy for me.”

“Riding exhilarated me; it gave me a joy and a purpose. It jump-started my healing,” Ann said. “When I was so fatigued that I couldn’t move, the excitement of going to the barn and getting my foot in the stirrup would make me crawl out of bed.”

Dressage As Medicine

Seeking out dressage training, Ann signed on with Margo Gogan in Salt Lake City. “Margo was so patient with me,” Romney recounted. “I’d trot around the ring once, then take a break and try again. The riding helped me gain back core strength and balance.”

Gogan routinely participated in Utah-based clinics, given by renowned dressage trainer Ebeling. Ann routinely observed these clinics, captivated by what she saw.

“I would watch Margo and Jan ride and think, ‘I want to do that myself,’ ” Romney recalled. “My mind was much more educated than my body. But I thought, ‘Maybe if I can keep pushing, I can get there.’ ”

Soon Ann was riding in Ebeling’s clinics too; then she and Gogan started traveling to Ebeling’s farm, The Acres, in Moorpark, Calif., for further training. Over time Ann formed a training bond and a strong friendship with Jan and his wife, Amy.

“She was a teacher’s dream,” Ebeling recalled of his early days coaching Ann. “She was so determined to ride and do it correctly. She never made an excuse. She always said, ‘I think I can do it, let me try one more time.’

“She was easily fatigued back then, so she’d have to quit early,” Ebeling continued. “But then she’d stick around just watching, talking about and absorbing everything she could possibly learn about dressage.”

By 2000, Ann was competing at first level on borrowed horses; by the next year, she reached fourth level. “I certainly wouldn’t recommend this to anyone, skipping levels the way I did,” she admitted. “But I was just so impatient.”