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Friday, June 22, 2012

2012 Mitt Romney's Pretty Pony Takes the Spotlight

Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Jun 22, 2012 at 10:19 AM

So Mitt Romney's magical dressage horse Rafalca is going to the Olympics, which is very exciting. His little dancing horse could win a medal for America! Another interesting fact about Romney's dancing horses is that they appear to have a history of doping the horses up. Here's the sad story of Super Hit, a dressage horse the Romneys sold for $125,000:

After the sale of Super Hit, the new owners soon discovered he was physically incapable of performing dressage. They consulted Dr. Stephen Soule, veterinarian for the United States Equestrian Team since 1978. Dr. Soule found that Super Hit, at the time he was sold by the Romneys, had a staggering amount of painkillers in his system.

"In my 38-years of practice, " Dr. Soule wrote, "I have never come across a drug screen such as this where the horse has been administered so many different medications at the same time."

The new owners sued Ann Romney and her trainers in 2010, claiming that Super Hit had a defect in one of his feet and that the horse had been drugged with the massive amount of painkillers so that he could continue to perform, hiding his condition.

The Romneys settled out of court last year, before the presidential campaign started heating up. Because the Romneys have a lot of money. Part of the reason the Romneys have a lot of money is because they get huge tax breaks. In fact, the Romneys declared a loss of $77,000 for the care and feeding of Rafalca on their 2010 tax returns. Which means the Romneys spend way more on Rafalca in a year than the average American makes in a year:

For example, did you know that the average family spends a little over $16,000 on housing per year, and Rafalca's housing costs nearly $29,000? That Rafalca's clothing costs $10,000 per year? That the Romneys shell out $15,420 carting that four legged Fauntleroy from place to place?

The punchline to all this is that Mitt Romney can't go a full day without referring to Barack Obama as out of touch with the average American.

(Most of this comes via Rafalca Romney on Twitter. You should follow Rafalca, who is very liberal for a horse, and quite handy with the tweets.)

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Comments (17) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

I don't know about you guys, but I am loving Ponygate.

Posted by Zebes

on June 22, 2012 at 10:23 AM

I love it too.

Posted by meowmeowkitty on June 22, 2012 at 10:27 AM

The cost-of-horses thing is just another thing to laugh about; the story of the painkillers is about animal abuse and makes me angry.

Posted by seatackled on June 22, 2012 at 10:32 AM

It could be a little more ridiculous, but not much. Any bets on when his secret offshore stockpile of top hats and monocles is discovered?

Posted by MacCrocodile

on June 22, 2012 at 10:34 AM

God I love Pushers.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on June 22, 2012 at 10:35 AM

What is it with this guy and animals? This is better (worse) than the dog story.

Posted by willendorf on June 22, 2012 at 10:38 AM

7 Comment Pulled (Spam) Comment Policy

SPAM ON AISLE 7!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by scary tyler moore

on June 22, 2012 at 10:56 AM

lulz, spam website is //nsfw.something.

I would like to make $76/hr on the internet, but I can't find out how, since I am at work.

Posted by Bohica on June 22, 2012 at 11:01 AM

The horse biz is just about as nasty as it gets. Look up what Rielle Hunter's dad did to her show horse for the insurance money. That's some cold-hearted shit.

Posted by Westside forever on June 22, 2012 at 11:34 AM

Rich people suck.

Posted by randomitis on June 22, 2012 at 12:05 PM

His name is Willard, Willard Mitt Romney, "W"

Posted by In it on June 22, 2012 at 12:13 PM

$10,000 per year for horse's clothing? Didn't even know that horses wore clothes. But how poor am I?

Posted by Patricia Kayden on June 22, 2012 at 4:21 PM

what the hells is that horse wearing!! Spun gold?!?

Posted by subwlf on June 22, 2012 at 4:46 PM

A little bit o' the Damon Runyon sneaking in that last parenthetical expression there. It is unavoidable given that the topic is horses, even though these are such horses as would make Hot Horse Herbie weep until he stopped.

Posted by LMcGuff

on June 22, 2012 at 5:10 PM

Oh, keep the Romney stories coming. The more exposure this guy gets, the more we get to see who the cold-hearted out-of-touch elitist is.

Posted by floater on June 22, 2012 at 10:50 PM

This is not only a case of animal abuse but also illustrates a total lack of decency toward people. Giving Ann Romney the benefit of possibly not knowing what was going on with the sale of Hit, her trainer Jan Ebeling acted as her agent in the sale. According to the buyer, Katherine Norris he represented the horse "as the soundest horse in the barn." Yes, the same Jan Ebeling who just qualified for the Olympics on Romney's horse, Rafalca. Ebeling was named as a defendant in the fraud suit. However, the Romney's are worth $250,000,000. Instead of refunding the $125,000 sale price when it was exposed that the horse had been drugged prior to the sale, which is illegal in most states, the Romney's forced Norris to sue them. The suit was settled out of court in 2010. Romney's tried to insert a nondisclosure clause in the settlement but Norris refused. The horse is permanently lame and has been retired. This is all according to what was reported in the New York Times and L.A. times. One other point. No knowledgeable horse person would knowingly buy a horse with a bone spur on it's coffin bone which is what the Romney's did when they purchased Hit for $105,000.

Posted by Eliduc on June 24, 2012 at 10:24 PM