Neil Cavuto Is Wrong About Ann Romney's Fancy Horses

Fox Business Network's Neil Cavuto gave a passionate defense of Ann Romney's fancy horse sport on his show last night, saying that it's entirely unfair to make fun of her horses, since she uses them as therapy for her multiple sclerosis.

Fox Business Network's Neil Cavuto gave a passionate defense of Ann Romney's fancy horse sport on his show last night, saying that it's entirely unfair to make fun of her horses, since she uses them as therapy for her multiple sclerosis. Cavuto said:

"I've had enough. Enough of condescending commentators at another news channel whose incredible ignorance of a disease I know all too well risks being accepted by an audience that might not know the facts that well. So here are the facts. Ann Romney has multiple sclerosis. I have multiple sclerosis. Ann does not need your sympathy. I don't need your sympathy... 

Ann Romney deals with her MS by riding horses. It's called hippotherapy -- some call it dressage -- but at it's core, for MS patients, it refers to using horseback riding as a treatment for medical conditions."

This is wrong. Some do not call it dressage. Dressage is not a synonym for hippotherapy, or for horseback riding. It's a distinct sport in which people make horses dance to music and are judged by how well they perform. Romney's horse Rafalca is going to the Olympics.

No one is making fun of Romney for riding horses as therapy for M.S. And if dressage helped Romney with her M.S., that is great for her. But what people (me) are making fun of is not that she rides horses. People (me) are instead entirely tickled at the sport (not medical treatment) and its infinite goofiness, which Romney has chosen as a hobby. Not only do the horses dance to, say, muzak versions of Carpenters songs, but the riders wear gloves, tails, and top hats. Top hats! When someone wears a funny hat, you get to mock them. When rich people wear funny hats, it's especially hilarious -- see the calamari-esque hat Princess Beatrice wore to the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. But even in the royal wedding's orgy of funny hats, no one wore a top hat! The only other person on the planet wearing a top hat unironically may be Mr. Peanut. Cavuto is welcome to bash MSNBC for being "condescending, sanctimonious, twits." But he's not allowed to take away our jokes.

Watch Cavuto's joke-hating speech here: