Re: In Rarefied Sport, a View of the Romneys’ World

This is a carbon copy of "Surf-Boarder," John Kerry when heran in
2004??

Kerry's wealth is about the same as Romney's

On May 27, 8:57 am, Leader of 71 <lesjul...@gmail.com> wrote:
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> ------------------------------
> May 26, 2012
> In Rarefied Sport, a View of the Romneys' WorldBy TRIP GABRIEL<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/trip_gab...>
>
> As Ann Romney immersed herself in the elite world of riding over the last
> dozen years, she relied on Jan Ebeling as a trusted tutor and horse scout.
> In her, he found a deep-pocketed patron.
>
> A German-born trainer and top-ranked equestrian, Mr. Ebeling was at ease
> with the wealthy women drawn to the sport of dressage, in which horses
> costing up to seven figures execute pirouettes and other dancelike moves<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KojrAsNF2c> for
> riders wearing tails and top hats.
>
> A taskmaster, Mr. Ebeling pushed Mrs. Romney to excel in high-level amateur
> shows. He escorted her on horse-buying expeditions to Europe. She shares
> ownership of the Oldenburg mare he dreams of riding in the Olympic Games
> this summer. Mrs. Romney and her husband, Mitt, even floated a loan —
> $250,000 to $500,000, according to financial records — to Mr. Ebeling and
> his wife for the horse farm they run in California, where the Romneys use a
> Mediterranean-style guesthouse as a getaway.
>
> "He came over here with two empty hands," Anne Gribbons, technical adviser
> of the United States dressage team, said of Mr. Ebeling. "He had a lucky
> break to get to know the Romneys."
>
> The relationship has given the Romneys "the ability to enjoy the horses in
> a very safe and private haven, along with enjoying the people who provide
> them the service," said Robert Dover, who knows the Romneys and Mr. Ebeling
> and his wife, Amy. "That friendship has stood the test of time." It also
> offers a glimpse into the Romneys' way of life, which they have generally
> shielded from view.
>
> Protective of their privacy, they may also have been wary of the kind of
> fallout that came after Mr. Romney's mention of the "couple of Cadillacs"
> his wife owned and the disclosure of plans for a car elevator in the
> family's $9 million beach house in California, which prompted criticism
> that Mr. Romney was out of touch with average Americans.
>
> Mrs. Romney took up dressage at age 50 as a therapy for multiple sclerosis,
> but it soon became her passion. Riding, she has said, "sings to my soul."
>
> Mr. Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, was also drawn
> in. He chose the music that Mr. Ebeling has ridden to in competitions, from
> the movie <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5qlWLXbfL4> "The Mission." He
> also took up trail riding. In a recent conversation<http://gawker.com/5900710/announcing-our-newest-hire-a-current-fox-ne...> with
> Sean Hannity of Fox News not meant for broadcast but leaked to the
> Internet, Mr. Romney showed a familiarity with expensive, esoteric breeds,
> mentioning his wife's Austrian Warmbloods and his own Missouri Fox Trotter
> — "like a quarter horse, but just a much better gait."
>
> The couple's ties to Mr. Ebeling, 53, have also led to a legal
> entanglement. In 2010, a San Diego woman sued the trainer, his wife and
> Mrs. Romney for fraud, claiming that the severity of a foot defect in a
> horse she bought from Mrs. Romney for $125,000 had been concealed. The case
> raised questions about whether the Ebelings, who acted as sales agents,
> intentionally covered up the animal's condition, and if so, whether Mrs.
> Romney, a largely absentee owner, knew.
>
> Lawyers for Mrs. Romney and the Ebelings argued that the buyer was aware of
> the defect, a condition disclosed by a veterinarian who conducted a
> prepurchase exam, and denied any effort to deceive her. They pointed out
> that she continued to ride the horse, named Super Hit, for more than a year
> after the purchase in 2008.
>
> Last September, on the eve of a jury trial, Mrs. Romney was dropped from
> the lawsuit before it was settled out of court, according to the Romney
> campaign. "The lawsuit was frivolous," said Gail Gitcho, a Romney
> spokeswoman. Lawyers for the Ebelings did not return calls.
>
> One thing is certain: the suit has done nothing to shake Mrs. Romney's
> faith in Mr. Ebeling, who continues to enjoy her support as he has competed
> in international dressage competitions this spring and prepares for the
> United States Olympic selection trials beginning on June 8 in Gladstone,
> N.J.
>
> Should he win one of the three spots and ride at the London Games this
> summer, Mrs. Romney has said she would like to cheer him on from the stands.
>
> *Turning to Riding*
>
> Mrs. Romney, who declined to be interviewed for this article, returned to
> horseback riding, a sport she loved as a girl, after receiving a diagnosis
> of multiple sclerosis in 1998.
>
> The Romneys were then living in Utah, where Mr. Romney had been recruited
> to organize the 2002 Olympics. At first Mrs. Romney could not stay on a
> horse for more than a few minutes without tiring, but it made her "joyful
> and exhilarated," she once recalled. "I'd sit on a horse and forget I was
> even sick."
>
> She met Mr. Ebeling, currently ranked No. 9 among American dressage riders,
> when he visited Utah to offer clinics. Mr. Ebeling, who did not respond to
> requests to comment for this article, recalled in a 2007 interview with The
> New York Times that Mrs. Romney overcame her fatigue by sheer force of
> will. "Boy, she was determined," he said.
>
> As her disease went into remission, she began regularly traveling to Mr.
> Ebeling's stables in Moorpark, Calif., an hour northwest of Los Angeles.
> Friends and acquaintances described the trainer as patient and low-key but
> capable of driving students hard. Asked if she was ever unhappy with Mr.
> Ebeling's instruction, Mrs. Romney said in a deposition in the lawsuit, "I
> think that is not a fair question because we all get upset at certain times
> with anybody that is — you know, especially a German."
>
> She said she was grateful for his rigor, which helped her win gold and
> silver medals in the show ring. "He pushes me harder than I would ever push
> myself."
>
> Mr. Ebeling trained in dressage as a young man in Germany, a world leader
> in the sport, and immigrated in 1984 to pursue his career in the United
> States.
>
> A brief first marriage ended in divorce when his wife, Lisa Wilcox, an
> American-born Olympic rider, wanted to live in Germany to train and he
> preferred to stay in California. He later married Amy Roberts, who hired
> him as a trainer in 1995 at the stables she called the Acres, which she had
> bought a few years earlier and is now assessed at $1.6 million.
>
> The Ebelings built the property, amid avocado and lemon groves, into a
> premier dressage barn with stalls for 40 horses. Besides Mrs. Romney, it
> has drawn other wealthy clients, including the daughter of William Harlan,
> the founder of Harlan Estate <http://www.harlanestate.com/>, a boutique
> California winery. Mr. Dover, a former Olympic rider, recalled Mr.
> Ebeling's offering him a glass of a Harlan red one night: "As I was about
> to take my first sip, he said, 'That's like a $4,000 bottle.' "
>
> *A Powerful Supporter*
>
> 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.
>
> "Having people like that is very important to the success of this sport and
> our country being represented," said Mary Phelps, the publisher of an online
> dressage news site <http://www.dressagedaily.com/>, who estimated that the
> costs of exhibiting a horse on the international circuit could run to
> $200,000 a year.
>
> Mr. Dover, who during visits to the Acres has helped coach Mr. Ebeling for
> international dressage, often with Mrs. Romney looking on, recalled a
> meeting to plan Mr. Ebeling's European season. "She was very attentive to
> what he said, and what I thought, and had her own remarks and really wanted
> to be a part of the decision-making," Mr. Dover said of Mrs. Romney.
>
> Mr. Ebeling has been Mrs. Romney's guide on trips to Germany since 2000 to
> buy horses for upper-level competition, known as Grand Prix. Over the
> years, she acquired nearly a dozen, both for herself and Mr. Ebeling.
> Although a champion horse can cost seven figures, Mr. Ebeling, like most
> competitors, sought younger, less expensive horses and invested years to
> train them to respond to the rider's subtle squeezes and weight shifts in
> the show ring, where using one's voice draws a penalty.
>
> Although Mrs. Romney once stabled horses near her homes in Massachusetts
> and New Hampshire, all are now at the Acres. She spent most of the winter
> of 2005-6 there, riding Baron, one of her early purchases, in amateur
> classes at the Grand Prix level.
>
> Mr. Ebeling praised her drive. "People who start dressage later in their
> life," he said in 2007, "you don't get to Grand Prix. You just don't get
> there. It's extremely difficult in that short time."
>
> Super Hit, the horse that became the subject of the lawsuit, was bought in
> Germany in 2003 for about $100,000. At the time, X-rays showed that he had
> a small abnormality in his left front coffin joint. Mrs. Romney consulted
> three veterinarians and was told it was "not significant," according to her
> deposition in the suit, which was previously reported by The Washington
> Post.
>
> With Mr. Ebeling training Super Hit and riding him in competitions, he
> progressed and did well at shows. The horse also regularly received
> injections of anti-inflammatory drugs to prevent any problems with his
> coffin joint, which is where the hoof attaches to the lower leg. Veterinary
> experts say the drugs are commonly given to top-level sport horses.
>
> *Selling the Horse*
>
> Though Mrs. Romney loved the horse, calling him "Soupy," she decided to
> sell him in late 2007. Riding him, though meant to soothe her multiple
> sclerosis, had in fact become painful. "I frequently was getting back
> spasms when I rode Soupy," she said.
>
> The eventual buyer was a horsewoman named Catherine Norris, who lived near
> Seattle at the time. Mr. Ebeling, she later said, called Super Hit "the
> soundest horse in the barn."
>
> Before writing a check, Ms. Norris sought a standard prepurchase exam. The
> Ebelings recommended a veterinarian they knew, Dr. Doug Herthel, who
> identified the joint abnormality on an X-ray. He informed Ms. Norris of it
> but assured her it would not bar him from the upper-level show ring.
>
> But Dr. Herthel apparently did not mention that a toxicology test reported
> four tranquilizers in Super Hit's blood at the time of the exam. His
> records showed that he injected two of the drugs — to steady Super Hit
> during X-rays, he testified — but there was no documentation of the other
> two tranquilizers.
>
> Dr. Herthel sent an e-mail to Ms. Ebeling asking if the horse had been
> sedated before the exam; she replied that he had not. How the additional
> tranquilizers got into the animal was never fully established. A lawyer for
> Dr. Herthel, Steve Schwartz, said the drug laboratory's tests were not
> definitive.
>
> But veterinary experts unconnected with the case questioned the
> circumstances. "The presence of all those medications makes interpretation
> of the exam null and void," said Dr. Carolyn Weinberg, a board member of
> the American Association of Equine Practitioners. She and others said
> tranquilizers could mask problems.
>
> "They can affect the gait of the horse," said Dr. Harry Werner, the
> chairman of animal welfare for the equine association. "They have the
> potential to obscure a subtle lameness."
>
> Ms. Norris, who could not be reached for comment for this article,
> continued to board Super Hit at the Acres, paying some $2,400 a month. But
> she was soon complaining that "he looks funny on his left front," she
> testified in a deposition. According to her, Mr. Ebeling replied, "It's
> your riding."
>
> When she moved Super Hit to a stable near San Diego in April 2009, a new
> veterinarian reviewed the X-rays Dr. Herthel had taken and diagnosed
> lameness, and Super Hit subsequently became "a pasture horse" unfit for
> riding, Ms. Norris said.
>
> Jontelle Forbus, a trainer who had gone to work for the Ebelings shortly
> after Super Hit's sale and rode him at the Acres, said in court records
> that she, too, thought he had an irregular step and told this to Mr.
> Ebeling.
>
> "It was a horse sale where the seller wasn't honest about the product they
> were selling, and the buyer wasn't smart about looking into the whole
> picture," Ms. Forbus said in an interview recently.
>
> In testimony, she said she quit working at the Acres in part because she
> perceived "a feeling of general dishonesty" between the Ebelings and their
> clients largely over a failure to openly communicate.
>
> In interviews, other dressage clients of Mr. Ebeling's vouched that they
> trusted him. There is no record of other lawsuits filed against him or his
> wife in state or federal courts.
>
> A spokeswoman for the Romney campaign, Amanda Henneberg, said, "Mrs. Romney
> has, and always had, full trust and confidence in Jan and Amy Ebeling."
>
> Nine days after ending her case against Mrs. Romney and the Ebelings, Ms.
> Norris settled with Dr. Herthel. The veterinarian's lawyer, Mr. Schwartz,
> said his client paid no money. "They did not have a viable case and they
> quit," he said.
>
> Before it ended, Ms. Norris's lawyers accused Dr. Herthel of being more
> interested in gaining favor with Super Hit's famous seller, at a time when
> Mr. Romney was making his first bid for the presidency, than in protecting
> Ms. Norris's interests.
>
> On the day Ms. Ebeling had made the appointment for the prepurchase exam,
> Dr. Herthel confirmed it in an e-mail. It was Feb. 5, 2008: Super Tuesday,
> when California was holding its Republican primary. "We are telling
> everybody to vote Romney today," the vet wrote.
>
> Jodi Kantor and Stephanie Saul contributed reporting.
>
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