Saturday, June 23, 2012

Olympic Athlete: Rafalca (and Jan Ebeling)

Today's Olympic Athlete is Rafalca, a dressage mare that is 14 years old.  Jan Ebeling rides Rafalca in the Olympics in Dressage - kind of horse ballet (his explanation).  Jan Ebeling is a German immigrant that came to the US with nothing but a dream - and a mutli-thousand dollar contract to teach dressage to people that have a $100,000 a year to drop on a horse.
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Fun fact, Rafalca is,owned by Ann Romney - wife of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.   We don't normally think of non-humans as Athletes (except for frisbee-catching dogs - for which there is no Olympic event), but Rafalca is one.  Jan Ebeling has ridden many horses, but they don't all get to the Olympics.
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About the whole tax debacle....
Now, you will hear a lot of noise that in addition to being an Olympic Contender, Rafalca is a tax deduction for the Romneys -and I admit, it is odd to find that  Dressage horse ridden by an German Born Nob somehow is a tax deduction.  In actuality, Ann pursued Dressage as therapy for her multiple sclerosis - so it does make sense.  And, Rafalca helped her.  Anyone who has used an animal in therapy knows they can help.
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Should it still be a tax deduction?  Probably not - the tax code probably wasn't written so that horses worth twice the national average income could be written off.  However, clearly the therapy did help Mrs. Romney - so good on.  And it certainly isn't Ann Romney's fault the horse is a tax deduction.  Not taking it would be silly.  So, I see no problems.