Ringling!

As I write this post I am having a breakfast of Arizona Green Tea and Spicy Pork Rinds. (Yes, I know...my resolve is weak when it comes to food...I really really like Spicy Pork Rinds) Breakfast of champions? Probably not, but at least I'm not skipping breakfast, right? Anyway, I digress.

Yesterday, my family went to the Circus for the first time. Despite being Rock Concert loud, it was a lot of fun...well for most of us. Kesi wasn't able to enjoy until one of the nice attendants gave me a set of earplugs. After that she seemed to be able to enjoy it even if she wasn't very excited by it. N'tan and Arri were totally the opposite. N'tan's interested wavered with the act. Anything involving animals got his attention, especially the trained dogs. However, the stunts, high wire and clowns did not. Whenever it was people performers he was suddenly more interested in the little boy behind us. He kept waving and saying "Hi!" Arri was totally engrossed. She was awe struck by the acrobats and entertained by the animals. She seemed to be particularly interested in anyone who jumped or tumbled and laughed very loudly at all the clown antics. Afterwards, she told Melissa that she wanted to be able to jump that high. (There was one group of kids from "Inner city Chicago" that did pretty amazing jumping acrobatics.)

I personally enjoyed the comedy the most. The animal tricks were okay but not really phenomenal. And the acrobatics were good but definitely not on par with Cirque De Soleil. (Those freaks are amazing! I would love to see them live one of these days.)

On a darker note, there was a group protesting the circus. I took one of their pamphlets out of curiosity. It was pretty hyped up and therefore hard to believe, but they made some interesting points. After reading it, I began to wonder if they really did train the animals with pain instead of nuturing like the Ringling pamphlet claimed. The part that struck me was that they used the whips. Before dismissing my though, read this:
They were doing question and answer and one of the kids asked why the horse trainer was using whips. He said that the whips were similar to a conductors baton. They were something all the horse could see and be guided by and that when he snapped them on the ground all the horses could hear it over the noise and respond. Sounded reasonable to me, right up until the point that he had the horses rear up and walk on 2 legs. I watched carefully as he guided them gently with the whip. But then one seemed to waver for a second. He moved the whip in a much faster manner actually AT the horse. It didn't look fast enought to harm the animal, but the horse reacted very negatively. You could see it's mood change in it's eyes. It was Definitely afraid of the whip and it kicked at it with it's front hooves in what seemed like an almost desperate attempt to get the whip away. After it did this he raked the whip up and tapped its face. The whip didn't crack but the horse visible jerked its head away. He did this multiple times. I am not sure what to think. The horse was obviously not comfortable with this, maybe even afraid. The tiger trainer was a different story. The tigers never seemed uncomfortable. It appeared exactly as they explained it. That he played with them. Same with the dog trainer. I just don't know. Will have to look further into it...

Luke