For Riz, the Turban Cowboy

Turb,
I forgot what year this was until I saw the date on the photo's. It is a liberty act I trained for Raul Rodriques, who booked it on Ringling. It consisted of 7 white, blue eyed miniature stallions that I located for him in North Carolina and Wyoming. The top photos show them the day they arrived looking all dirty and filthy. I refuse to touch a dirty, wooly horse so the first order of business was to clean and clip them. Before they arrived I rented a place that was temporarily shut down after being hit by a hurricane and had a special ring curb built, as I was going to be training them, horror of horror's all by my self without any of those nasty assistant's around. After the main 6 finished their routine of cut backs, split reverse's, two's, thread the needle in pair's, three's, and a wheel 4 got on pedestals(dog pedestals that a friend loaned me) at the 4 points of the ring and two stood on 2X4's(it was a hay pallet but it was all I had at the time) in the middle. The 7th stallion Picasso ran in and did a figure 8 through the middle horses and around the others. After 3 figure 8's the 4 point horses got up on the pedestals and turned, while Picasso waltzed around each one. He finished with a hind leg walk through the middle and went out. The other six horse's then got up on the ring curb, in a sense. Because I didn't have a ring curb, as it was blocked by the fence, I just lined the dog pedestal up, and they mount on those. It gave them the idea and they had know problem mounting the ring curb when they were delivered to Ringling Bros. 3 months later in Lexington, Ky. They also had no problem with the standard circus ring curb. The bottom photo shows what is standard procedure after training. Surcingles and headstalls are removed and the animals are rehearsed loose. These photos are all I have, and the are special as they were taken by Paul Nelson a great, great liberty trainer from the past the day he came to visit. Raul taught two of the horses, I believe Chagall and Monet to back up and sit on the ring curb a year after taking delivery, because I told him there wasn't enough money in the world to have me make a horse sit down. He later did a cute piece of business with them, where he roached their mains and tails and had colored mane and tail "wigs" made for them. He(Raul) dressed as a Court Jester and presented the horse's with pink, green, blue, etc manes and tails as the "My Little Pony Troupe."

A year later I trained another liberty act, using only a round pen, no "assistants" in Wisconsin in an unheated barn in the dead of winter, so I don't have a single picture of them. No body came near the barn let alone pictures. Fire places were too inviting for them. It worked in a circus ring upon completion. John Herriott presented it the following year and Dianne Olds Rossi say it a few years later so you will have to ask them about it. It consisted of 6 National Show Horses, 3 bay and 3 chestnuts. It was tough because the owner wanted them to work "every other color," so instead of letting the horse's decide where their place would be, I had to tell them. I had to use a filly, which I don't prefer for liberty acts, in order to have 6(she kicked John Milton and broke his arm later.) They did reverse, two's, split reverse, wheel, ring curb walk from side to side, and a head to tail waltz finishing with a ring curb stand at the front unchecked, so they could oblique. One of them named Monarch I trained to Spanish walk on long lines, later free, and as an extra bit of "cheese" for the show individual horses would be taken out of line as the others trotted around and released so folks could be "awed" by their ability to find their place.