When Jody sent this you tube she possibly didn't know I knew this young man with the giraffe. This is Octavio Aguilar a very talented youngster that I met last year when I was brought to Mexico to train a hind leg tiger. Octavio does the animal acts for Circo Aquilar including a camel and horse act trained by Ian Garden, an American Bison, the Giraffe, and a a beautiful tiger act with 20 tigers. This show was one of the nicest I have ever seen, with a huge menagerie/zoo.
Courtesy of Jody.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Octavio Aquilar
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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17 comments:
No Wade, I didn't know that.
In this clip I found it very interesting the crowd's response for a trick as simple as an animal giving a kiss.
Maybe the K.I.S.S. should apply to circus.
Of course, there are exceptions such as the Carousel...LOL
Jody,
This isn't an act, and no a kiss 0 death is not a trick. That's a patch. The giraffe is only led out, and the children are allowed to feed it bread. A "circus experience" like an elephant ride only free, and lasting as long as this tape until the next act is ready.
Wade
That makes me feel better. I'd hate to think that's all it took over there to make a circus act...Simple is one thing but that would be pretty sorry.
Jody,
You ever seen a video or a picture of a giraffe doing anything besides eating in the ring, let me know.
Wade
Fredy in the 70s let the giraffe riding along with a rhino.
And Christel developed a short act with a giraffe and an arabian horse.
But we are speaking of Fredy and Christel.
As one of few blog readers who has handled a giraffe, I'd like to say until you've had a giraffe and taught him more, Wade, you're really not in a position to criticize. A giraffe does not handle like a horse.
Jim Clubb is satisfied with his 19 footer doing little more than this. You won't discuss animal training with me, so maybe you should take this up with him.
Didn't Gunther have a giraffe? What did his do?
Raffaele,
If you have a giraffe and a rhino, you have two animals that do nothing. Christel's and Fredy would of course do a superb job with anything liberty, but God can't train a giraffe to do anything more then come in the ring and eat or stand on a pedestal. A giraffe is a giraffe.
Wade
Pat,
For Christ sake, I didn't criticize shit, I described what a giraffe does, and I don't see where I said a giraffe was anything like a horse, and if you had asked, I would have told you that. Even Dave Hale and Bob Gibbs knew that. Does anybody else see where I criticized what a giraffe does, or that it was anything like a horse?
I would love to spend days discussing animal training with Jim Clubb, but with a giraffe there is not much to discuss unless you want to make it mysterious and more then it is.
Yes, Gunther had a giraffe like everybody else and it did nothing. Like Fredy's and Christel's, so it is not a knock on he or any of those great trainers. Irvin wanted a "great big giant giraffe" for an African jungle spec, and when it was explained that you had to get a young one and let it grow up, he thought that would be fine. After waiting for two years for it to become a "great big giant giraffe," and the public shrugging their shoulders at it, they removed it from the show.
Speaking of your giraffe, list it's extensive behaviors/act for us. I have seen a video, but having you describe it would be so much more exciting.
Booker Dan, do you appreciated what I go through, trying to be polite?
Wade
For Christ's sake, Wade, I didn't say he had any extensive behaviors/act. Where did I say he had extensive behaviors I could list? He doesn't do anything either, he walks around and eats bananas, tries to kick the prop guys, then hangs out with his zebra pals and drools on everybody.
But that bull giraffe is so big and impressive I doubt the audience would enjoy him anymore if he was tap dancing with a cane and a top hat. The people don't shrug their shoulders when an animal that size enters a tent. They are in awe.
I figured you probably thought if it eats hay, has four legs and you can put a halter on it, it handles like a horse. Wrong again? Incredible.
For Christ's sake, Wade, I didn't say he had any extensive behaviors/act. Where did I say he had extensive behaviors I could list? He doesn't do anything either, he walks around and eats bananas, tries to kick the prop guys, then hangs out with his zebra pals and drools on everybody.
But that bull giraffe is so big and impressive I doubt the audience would enjoy him any more if he was tap dancing with a cane and a top hat. The people don't shrug their shoulders when an animal that size enters a tent. They are in awe.
I figured you probably thought if it eats hay, has four legs and you can put a halter on it, it handles like a horse. Wrong again? Incredible.
Pat Patch,
You have been good at figuring wrong for a long time, I should have suspected you were just figuring wrong again.
Maybe it works in a tent, a lot of lame things do. In order for folks to be in awe of something in a coliseum they have to see something better then big. Doing something is the formula GGW hit upon. I am sorry I did not list "slobbered." Wow, good job!! Is that a by product of eating, or does that have to be trained separately.
Wade
Hi Wade,
Not to add Oil to the Fire. Freddy Knies Giraffe is the best, I saw it sadled and been riden by Sasha Houcke.
Maybee they could teach it to eat Bananas too!
Take Care.
Anonymous"5"
Anonymous # 5,
LOL. "Oil on the fire" My original statement was: "You ever seen a video or a picture of a giraffe doing anything besides eating in the ring, let me know." Although Mr. White may think I am wrong, responses telling us what else they do, have been pretty confirming. I just never considered "big" and "slobbering" as legitimate behaviors. LOL It is not a knock on anybodies skills, perceived or otherwise. They are a giraffe. Physically not capable of much, except eating the tallest leaves. The tree is just shortened in the circus ring. Again sitting with your feet on the ring curb looking up might be something(something more then in a zoo, in a herd situation is speculative). But in the 100th row looking down, rather uninspiring.
Be safe, Mate
Wade
Wow, I guess you told me off, didn't you. *yawn*
You must be terribly pleased with yourself.
Whatever.
wade, the first time i saw the infamous "trained" buffalo on ringling -- the crowd reacted like it had done somthing wonderful when all it did was enter the ring looking like it was ready to kill somebody. i remeber being shocked. suprprised and amazed, and my first thought was that it had been so long since the miami audience had seen something different they'd go crazy over anything new. when the act was over, i though is that all there is? i don't rememeber the buffalo doing much beside snorting and stomping his feet and scaring the zebras. but the audience loved it. i think that was your first year on ringling also. all i'm saying is an unusual exotic animal doesn't havbe to be in a tent to excite people. on the other hand, nobody ever seemed to notice gunther's do-nothing girafe at all, he might has well have never entered the arena during his brief time with the show. People also ignored the Togni do nothing rhino but the crowd went wild as soon as Zusha the hippo came running through the curtain. i think it may have had something to do with size. the buffalo and hippo looked huge from the seats, the young giraffe was so short and the rhino not nearly as large as the one on carson barnes or the ones i've seen pix of on the european shows. i don't think with the case of exotics it's a tent or an arena, united states or europe, i think it's the way the animal looks when it first enters. almost the animal's attitude, in this case, i think bigger is much better. thius even goes back to the "trained hipp" days when the hippo would walk around the track and do nothing else except maybe eat a little hay -- and leave people talking for weeks.
with something like this, we all need to be able to forget what we've seen and expect and look at a giraffe walking around a ring or somethimng like that through the eyes of the children of all ages who bought tickets. they don't have the expectations we do. for them, it's enough to se an animal like that without expecting it to do much. the key is in the presentation.
often human performers will be ignored doing a trick other performers go crazy over while applauding someone who doesn't do very much but looks good, has good wardrobe, great style and attitude, and knows how to sell the act.
Pat,
I don't think I told anybody off. I offered an my opinion, as did others. Something I have been accused of not letting anybody else have. Just set the record a little straighter on who doesn't allow an opinion, that's all.
Wade
Henry,
If I recall, Geronimo was brought to the show in Cleveland, at the end of the second year. Different then you Henry, I watched it every show for two more years, not just one show, and the "wow" was about 25% and the "oh, well" was about 75% depending on the size of the building. You will recall, Miami was a very small building with the seat's very close. (Security actually had to get us to the dressing room after our act's.) You will also recall, Geronimo was brought in as part of a spectacular exotic act with 4 camels, 4 appaloosa horses, and 4 zebras. If the building was small enough, and he could be run down the track and into the ring where he laid down as the other animals circled him, and then Daniel rode him out or in, yes it was effective. But not so, if the building was big, and he had to be held at the back of the ring until his time to enter.
The children of the early 1900's hadn't seen anything like hippos, giraffe, buffalo, etc. Today they have seen them in a greater magnitude and appreciation, and they don't belong standing in a stall or tied to a picket line.
In reference to your last statement, you are right. A producer told me the other day, in reference to a cage act now working, "it is a very nice act, but if it had tits and ass it would be an even better act"(sounds like a gentleman's club to me Henry. Is that what the kids/children want?) Or as the producer of Circus Vargas said in 1999, "the act stinks, but it's cheap enough, and they like a broad"(again is that the kids/children speaking?) You tell me Henry. Vargas folded in 2003, and business is still down worldwide for most of the rest.
Wade
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