Rafalca, USA Olympic Celebrity Mare, Pregnant

9 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Rafalca, USA Olympic Celebrity Mare, Pregnant
A pregnant Rafalca in a paddock at Amy andJan Ebeling's The Acres in Moorpark, California.
A pregnant Rafalca in a paddock at Amy andJan Ebeling’s The Acres in Moorpark, California.

MOORPARK, California, July 3, 2015–Rafalca, the mare that was ridden by Jan Ebeling for the United States at the 2012 Olympic Games in London in the maelstrom of an American presidential election campaign, is pregnant and expected to deliver her first baby in May 2016.

Now 18 years old, Rafalca (Argentinius x Rubinestein) is pregnant to Connaisseur, a dressage stallion that placed third in the 2011 and sixth in the 2012 Pavo Cups with Emmelie Scholtens of the Netherlands. Connaisseur, owned by Sara Pocock, is approved in Germany as Westfalen, in Holland as KWPN, Sweden as ASVH and as a Belgium Warmblood.

Rafalca, an  Oldenburg mare, is owned by the “Three Amigos of Ann Romney, Amy Ebeling, and Beth Meyer. In addition to the Olympics, Jan rode the mare in three World Cup Finals–in Las Vegas in 2009, Leipzig, Germany in 2011 and ‘s-Hertogenbosh, Netherlands in 2o12 as well as the London Olympics.

The mare became a celebrity linked to the ownership group that Jan Ebeling ignored to ride through the turmoil of an American presidential election campaign, unrelenting television comedy skits and vilified by partisan media as a symbol of privilege and wealth in a period of economic distress.

Rafalca was retired in a ceremony under the lights at the inaugural Central Park Horse Show in New York in 2014.

Jan Ebeling riding Rafalca out of the Central Park Horse Show arena watched by the Three Amigos--owners Amy Ebeling, Beth Meyer and Ann Romney with Mark Bellissimo, organizer of the inaugural event. © Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com
Jan Ebeling riding Rafalca out of the Central Park Horse Show arena watched by the Three Amigos–owners Amy Ebeling, Beth Meyer and Ann Romney with Mark Bellissimo, organizer of the inaugural event. © Ken Braddick/dressage-news.com