Rafalca (born 1997) is a former dressage horse, co-owned by Ann Romney,[1] that performed in the equestrian competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics, with rider (and co-owner/trainer) Jan Ebeling.
[4] Rafalca is a bay Oldenburg mare, born in Menslage in Germany in 1997, and bred by Erwin Risch.
[5][6] Rafalca's sire was Argentinus (1980 – 2007), a Hanoverian show jumping stallion; her dam, Ratine (b.
Ramzes was an influential warmblood sire of show jumping and dressage horses who stood at various studs, including the Janów Podlaski Stud Farm in Poland, and would go on to have a strong influence on the Westphalian, Holsteiner, and other German warmblood horse breeds.
The hereditary Amurath tendency to produce pacing, which did not necessarily nullify jumping ability as seen in the Argram line of the Hanoverian breed, never occurred in Holstein."
Malta's bloodlines included English Thoroughbred descendants of the racing stallions King Fergus (b.
[15] Rubenstein I's dam, Antine, was sired by the English Thoroughbred stallion Angelo out of Dodona, a Westphalian mare.
1887), who stood at the Celle State Stud from 1894 to 1906, Robert the Devil would found the "D line" of Hanoverians, which excelled in dressage.
Stute von Tilly's line also had influence from other key English Thoroughbred racing stallions, including Regulus (b.
[17] Rafalca was purchased by Ann Romney, Amy Ebeling, and Beth Meyer in 2006 at the age of 9; imported from Germany to the United States; and started competing with rider Jan Ebeling at the Grand Prix level, the highest competition level in dressage, the same year.
[21] At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, after participating over several days, Ebeling and Rafalca finished in 28th place with a score of 69.302 and did not qualify to move on to the final round for individual medals.
Ebeling and Rafalca's team of owners - Amy Ebeling, Ann Romney, and Beth Meyer - first tried to breed the mare following her retirement ceremony at the Central Park Horse Show in New York City, New York in 2014; however, Rafalca failed to conceive.
In 2015, the owner team made a second attempt to breed Rafalca - now 19 years old - using fresh semen from Connaisseur, a 2007 Dutch Warmblood stallion (Con Amore x Donna Clara, by Donnerhall) and Grand Prix dressage winner.
[24] On 30 April 2016, Rafalca gave birth to her first foal, a black or dark bay Oldenburg filly named Rafaela.
[27] Gaspard's sire, Ravel, had become an international sensation and long-time cornerstone of the U.S. Dressage Team under German rider Steffen Peters and Japanese owner Akiko Yamazaki.
[28][29] In 2018, Rafalca gave birth to her second foal, a bay Oldenburg filly with an unusual white bald face marking named Rafi.
Initially purchased by Allida Taylor, a United States Dressage Federation (USDF) gold medalist and CDI Grand Prix competitor, Rafi was resold for $57,000 USD to a private buyer in 2022.
[30] Rafalca is referred to in the show 30 Rock, Saturday Night Live, as well as The Newsroom and Tooning Out the News.
Rafalca is referred to in Jenny Rachel Weiner's play "Horse Girls" as part of a song about Ann Romney.