Rafalca with her newborn filly.
MOORPARK, California, April 30, 2016–Rafalca, the celebrity mare now 19 years old and ridden by Jan Ebeling for the United States at the 2012 Olympic Games, on Saturday gave birth to her first foal, a filly.
Both mother and baby, not yet named, were reported by Amy Ebeling as doing well at The Acres in Moorpark, north of Los Angeles.
The sire was Connaisseur, a dressage stallion that placed third in the 2011 and sixth in the 2012 Pavo Cups with Emmelie Scholtens of the Netherlands. Connaisseur is owned by Sara Pocock and is approved in Germany as Westfalen, in Holland as KWPN, Sweden as ASVH and also is a Belgian Warmblood.
Rafalca, and Oldenburg mare (Argentinius x Rubinestein) became the center of attention in 2012 because of the ownership by the “Three Amigos” of Ann Romney, whose husband Mitt Romney was the Republican candidate for president; Amy Ebeling, wife of Jan, and Beth Meyer who with her husband is an of American high performance dressage and eventing horses.
In addition to the London Olympics, Jan rode Rafalca in three World Cup Finals–in Las Vegas in 2009, Leipzig, Germany in 2011 and 's-Hertogenbosh, Netherlands in 2o12.
The mare became a celebrity linked to the ownership group. The German-born Jan ignored to ride through the turmoil of an American presidential election campaign, unrelenting television comedy skits and vilified by partisan media and a Democrat White House that attempted to portray Rafalca as a symbol of privilege and wealth though Ann Romney spoke out about her involvement in dressage through therapeutic riding that helped her deal with the crippling effects of multiple schlerosis.
Rafalca was retired in a ceremony under the lights at the inaugural Central Park Horse Show in New York in 2014.
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