Ann Romney’s Equine Passion

It’s almost unthinkable that a United States president should be without a spouse. The last time the White House was inhabited by a single man was in the mid-19th century, during James Buchanan’s presidency (1857-1861). Public opinion and the media practically demand the presence of a spouse: They need to meet the travelling companion of the president-to-be (who have all been men). Four years ago, it was possible the subject under observation would be a man when Hillary Clinton ran for the presidential nomination with Bill as her consort.

For the last few weeks, since Mitt Romney officially became the Republican candidate to compete for power in November, the gaze has turned toward the person who could — should the people’s will and the electoral college so decide — become the next First Lady of the U.S., ousting Michelle Obama. Ann Romney didn’t experience a moment’s doubt when her husband proposed a fresh attempt at the White House. He gambled for the office in 2008, but was defeated in the primaries. On this occasion, Mrs. Romney almost pushed him into it. “Onward,” said Romney to Romney.

Born Ann Lois Davies in 1949, this Welsh miner’s granddaughter only spent the first 16 years of her life without the presence of the man who is today her husband. Ann and Mitt met in the school they both studied at in Michigan (the state where the young man’s father was governor) and have been together ever since: 46 years. Ann Romney has woven her life around the Republican candidate, for whom she converted to the Mormon faith in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1966.

Mother of five and grandmother of 10, the two most important headlines Romney’s wife garnered during the campaign came from a Democrat commentator, who said she had never worked even a single day in her life, and from another commentator, who informed the public that Ann had selected a $990 shirt to participate in a TV program.

The first headline came about after Romney insisted on identifying his wife as the campaign’s economics expert. “My wife tells me that what women really care about are economic issues,” the former Massachusetts governor said. “Guess what? His wife has actually never worked a day in her life,” declared Democrat-aligned political analyst Hilary Rosen just hours later, committing — in many people’s opinion — the sin of saying what she thought with a microphone in hand, opening Pandora’s box.

Rosen had to apologize for insinuating that keeping up a household is not real work, although that wasn’t the objective of the debate. Romney challenges Obama on unemployment, not on women that work looking after their homes and children and, thus, don’t swell unemployment statistics. But Ann Romney found herself in the middle of a storm and had to defend her image in front of the people. An image that sees her managing a fortune of $250 million, keeping up four houses and two Cadillacs — all of it work, in the end — and caring for five children who are now grown. Without a doubt, the headline about the shirt — designed by Reed Krakoff, the man who turned Coach handbags into a $4 billion company — was a direct consequence of this and a certain lifestyle. Nothing to object to.

There have been two important setbacks in Ann Romney’s life: the diagnosis of breast cancer at the end of 2008 (she underwent a partial mastectomy) and, in 1998, learning that she suffered from multiple sclerosis. At times, this woman who may be First Lady resents the long campaign days, thanks to the serious illness that she combats with a very special therapy: horses and classical riding. The 63-year-old’s passion for equines is such that one of her sons, Josh, gave his father a horse mask in 2007 so that, wearing it, “maybe Mom will pay as much attention to you as she does to the horses.” Mrs. Romney informed Parade Magazine last autumn that if she arrived at the White House there would, without doubt, be horses on her lawn. “Some people have lovers in every port. I have horses in every port,” Romney declared to Fox News, adding, “I think that everyone in my life recognizes I can’t be off a horse for longer than about two to three weeks.”