In the 1970s the San Diego Zoo let kids ride the giant tortoises. They’re pretty quiet about that part of their history.
Disneyland used to have a Mule ride, it went more or less the route of the Mine train. Once at the Indio Date festival I rode a camel. But of course on the farm we rode horses.
Oh! My mother told me that when I was small, I used to ride atop the neighbor’s St Bernard. I think that DOES count, especially based on the wording of the poll.
I wanted to ride the mules at the Grand Canyon, but didn’t. I don’t think I’ve ever ridden a mule or cattle. I have ridden horses for real, and sat atop elephants and camels as other people told the animal where to go.
As a kid I rode a donkey, at least inthe UK is was common to offer donkey rides on the beach. (Just being led), surprised it wasn’t on the list.
Yeah, I’d say you have to have traveled some distance on the animal for it to count as riding it. I guess if @puzzlegal traveled at least a few steps on the Saint Bernard then it would count.
Honestly I’m surprised donkey rides are a thing. I thought donkeys had a reputation for being stubborn and uncooperative and thus not suitable for riding or as beasts of burden. That was why I didn’t include them in the poll.
I rode an elephant at an amusement park with my young son. Must have been around 35 years ago. The only thing I really remember about it is being surprised at how rough its skin was.
Dang, I forgot about that. I’ll have to go change my vote. That was a long time ago.
Re: Christmas tamales. I know there are Mexican immigrants all over the country. I’m a little surprised the custom hasn’t spread more widely.
That’s mules. Stubborn as a …
We also have an expression of stubborn as a mule anyway here is proof (as far as anything is proof these days with doctored images)
I’ve read several UK books (especially the Ruth Gallagher mysteries) where donkey rides on the beach are often mentioned.
I don’t remember. But from my mother’s description, i definitely rode around on the dog, and didn’t just sit on it.
I still like large dogs of that general type, st. Bernards, mastiffs, mountain dogs…
My dad gave me piggyback rides when I was little. Other than that, I’ve only ridden the 25¢ horse out in front of K-Mart and various carousel animals.
I’ve been to the desert on a horse with no name.
His name was Dan.
Was there anyone for to give you no pain?
There’s a whole song about it !
Went for a quick horseback ride yesterday , before the rains started. I rode Jake, my gf rode Gracie (aka Grapeseed).
Donkeys are or have been pretty commonly used for both purposes in quite a few places in the world. They’re smaller than horses, but much easier/cheaper to keep fed, and are surprisingly strong.
I would think donkeys are more common than mules theses days. I know there are donkey rides at some county fairs and such, but I’ve never seen mule rides available.
When I was a kid a family down the road had three or four horses and a donkey (named Jenny, natch). My sister and I would go riding with them, and sometimes I had the use of my grandfather’s horse, but if not, there were always more kids than horses and somebody had to ride the donkey.
Even longer ago, when I was only four or five years old, there was a very old man who used to plow his fields with a mule. A couple of times he let me ride the mule while he plowed. I remember mule rides being much smoother than donkey rides.
When I rode an ox it was at some kind of colonial farm attraction, near Williamsburg, VA. IIRC.
It seemed like everybody had goats when I was a kid, and they were ridden, or we attempted to ride them, all the time. Goats were better at pulling a cart or somebody’s wagon than allowing riders.
I think I have a picture in the picture books my mom put together of me on one of those when I was a kid. I’ll see if I can find it.
There’s a tendency for buildings where notorious crimes took place to turn into morbid tourist attractions. Jeffery Dahmer’s apartment building was torn down for exactly that reason – it was starting to attract a stream of tourists who just wanted to see the place where the famous murders took place. So my choice would be to tear down the school not just for the victims families’ stated reasons, but also to avoid a stream of people showing up just to take selfies there.