If you never saw them, Google Colbert:
1-taking a dressage lesson from Michael Barisone.
2-generating the #1 foam finger for dressage, the year Mitt Romney’s wife had a horse in the Olympics.
COTH embraced this & there were pics of fans at shows wearing The Finger
It was Mrs. Romney. I have seen her ride; she has health issues that make riding a challenge.
Thanks, I Googled & edited.
As I recall Ann Romney did not intend to ride Rafalca, she was owner.
The dressage “lesson” was with Michael Barisone.
Yes, the owner.
“I think I piaffed myself” -Colbert when the horse spooks
Mrs Romney still rides at GP.
Oops 
Edited my error
Well, I’ve ridden with both Barisone and Poulin and I have to say, I can’t imagine Michael Poulin working with Stephen Colbert. At all.
Michael Barisone had very funny stories about the filming.
But the thing is: I don’t get what he’s talking about. Holsteiners and Triple Crown winners?
For your viewing pleasure:
The Lesson:
Fans & The Finger:
To me, the funniest parts of the lessons were Barisone’s expressions when Colbert would make a ridiculous comment. He clearly didn’t get Colbert’s sense of humor and kept looking at him, like “Are you serious?” Well no, Colbert wasn’t serious and he was obviously hoping to get some funny back-and-forth commentary going.
I’ve never met him (Barisone), but it makes me wonder if he has much of a sense of humor. He truly looked flummoxed most of the time. 
I hadn’t seen this until now. Barisone’s responses to Colbert were just as funny as Colbert!
That’s actually not true. MB was trying to be funny, make jokes and was laughing most of the time. But, Colbert’s producers didn’t want that & had coaches work with MB for two full days to teach him not to laugh, even if something was funny, bc Colbert does not want his subject to be “in on the joke.” So MB and colberts “coaches,” worked together doing mock comedy routines to teach MB how NOT to “laugh,” or add in his own commentary, despite whether MB thought what he was saying would “add,” to the comedic act.
It’s a funny episode, but it’s completely scripted and very well crafted. Colbert is known for his genius and absolutely nothing gets aired which he, himself, has not entirely overseen & approved. But, MB was definitely not being rude or anything. All that “straight faced,”/no laughing was coached into him over a 48 hr period of time.
I think I read that Colbert used to ride.
Yeah, he did. Not consistently , but enough to handle Conchita’s little “spook,” incident @the cameras pretty well. Brand new riders would’ve been (likely) freaked out. Also, the mare he rode was the tamest at the time & a safe choice. Not too shabby a piaffe either!
Thanks for the inside information! I’d find it nearly impossible not to laugh at Colbert’s quips, no matter how long I was coached. 
Could we momentarily get back to the original question, please? How many people would have a clue as to what that meanwhile intro was about?
When he introduces a “Meanwhile” segment, he always picks a crazy metaphor about high-end items that absurdly illustrates the difference between “serious news” and the wacky stories he summarizes in “Meanwhile”. I’ve seen intros about wine, cars, etc. This time it was about horses.
Any viewers who watch the show are familiar with this segment.
