A video obtained by Gawker from an individual whom the site claims to be a "long-standing, current" Fox News employee shows presidential candidate Mitt Romney bantering with host Sean Hannity before an interview last February.
"What kind of horses do you have?" asks Hannity.
"She has Austrian warmbloods," says Romney, "It's a dressage horse ... for the sport she's in." "Me? I have a Missouri Fox Trotter. So mine's like a quarter horse, but just a much better gait -- it moves very fast."
The New York Times reported in December that Romney acquired "six-figure warmblood horses for his wife." The story was corrected to say that the horses were warmbloods, not thoroughbreds.
Ann Romney has used horses for therapy following being diagnosed for multiple sclerosis.
The Washington Post described dressage in a recent article on Ms. Romney's love for horses:
Dressage, whose roots date to ancient Greece, got its name (and its pronunciation, dress-AHGE) from a French term that means “training.” According to the U.S. Dressage Federation, “its purpose is to develop the horse’s natural athletic ability and willingness to work making him calm, supple and attentive to his rider.” Unlike other types of holdings, dressage horses are living investments whose value can tumble with the wrong turn of a hoof.
A 2004 Newsweek portrait showed Romney, dressed in black, riding a horse with dark clouds in the background.
Later in the clip, Hannity asks Romney whether he stayed off the Vegas Strip because of scrutiny, which Romney said wasn't the case. "You can spend your money on ads or you can spend it on hotel rooms -- I'd rather spend it on ads," he responded. Romney later won the Nevada primary.