Specifically at the Orange Show in San Bernardino CA back in the 60’s.
I remember the jockeys riding the birds and controlling them with blinders, my sister swears the jockeys rode in little carts behind the birds.
I can find nothing about the riders/blinders thing or even the ostrich farm in Rubidoux and am faced with telling my little sister that she is right.
Any help would be appreciated!
I just happened to watch the 1956 Around the World in 80 Days with David Niven, and there’s a scene in which Passepartout rides on the back of one, and Detective Fix follows him in a little cart pulled by one.
Well, now I’m going to have the Chocobo theme from Final Fantasy stuck in my head all day.
That’s Benny Hill in one of those costumes where the bottom half of the person is bogus. Can’t fool me!
I don’t want to spoil the fun, but I’ll do it anyway: I think people shouldn’t ride ostriches. Riding horses, camels or elephants is ok, they are all built strong enough to carry a human, but an ostrich? It also makes no practical sense, but is only done for entertainment. I don’t like seeing animals treated like that.
I’m really surprised to learn that it is still going on, it can’t be safe for bird or man. The riders I remember did have some control over the bird because they wouldn’t move if they couldn’t see, but they would still stomp or kick any human within reach if they could.
Riding elephants is not “ok”; unlike horses and (domesticated) camels, elephants are not domesticated species which are readily acclimated to living and breeding in captivity. They are highly intelligent and curious animals which need to live in extended interfamily groups where they demonstrate complex social behaviors and rituals. Elephants in captivity are usually captured at a young age (often by groups accompanying ivory poachers), are chained, hobbled, or housed in small cages to control them, and are trained using shock prods and other painful implements to subdue them; elephants who are not compliant are killed, often in front of other elephants as an example. African elephants are classified as “vulnerable” with numbers of fewer than half a million, while Asian elephants are considered an “endangered” species with only 40k-50k animals in the wild.
Stranger
Ok, I concur with everything you wrote, I’m generally always pro animal rights, but my bit about riding elephants was just a thoughtless remark about the mere fact that an elephant won’t be much weighed down by a human riding it, unlike an ostrich.
And actually, camel racing traditionally used small children as jockeys with thousands of them trafficked to the Arab States, where they may be abused, and certainly can be injured or killed if they fall off the camels. Some countries have banned child jockeys, switching instead to robotic jockeys, with remote-controlled whips to guide the camels.
Also the Disney Swiss Family Robinson (1960) had this scene:
I rode an elephant in Zambia. The elephants had been orphaned, they claimed, by other people. (And in one case by lions.) But also, one of their elephants left when she reached menarche, and lived with a wild herd for two years. And then she returned with her son. The elephant handlers rode the calf for part of the trip, but mostly he just hung out with us, ripping up small trees and playing with water.
Maybe I’m naive, but i don’t think they were torturing the elephants. And the elephants were clearly living in a small herd, with other elephants. The elephant with the calf had become the matriarch, by virtue of being the oldest female and having a child. They said when they wanted to teach the elephants a new trick, they taught her, and if she did it, all the others would, too.
Enslaving elephants is problematic, but the “carrying a person on their back” clearly isn’t, any more than carrying a small pack is a problem for humans.
I have no clue about ostriches. But in large part because they are not as smart and not as social as elephants or horses, I’d think they would be dangerous to interact with.
I’m really not fan of any competitive animal racing, even of domesticated species like dogs and horses, because it creates all kinds of perverse incentives for inbreeding, abuse, and not caring for animals (or jockeys) that are past their racing years.
Racing ostriches is obviously a novelty act, and yes, ostriches are potentially dangerous animals, although they aren’t nearly as mean as Canada Geese:
Stranger
I’m just amused by the idea and the sight of the robotic jockeys.
Having grown up in San Berdoo, I can confirm for the OP.
Oh hurray, settle the argument! Carts or riders? If it was either depending on the year, lie and tell me that it was always just riders cause I would hate to have to tell my little sister that she was right about something for once, LOL!
Mentioned in this article on the 1964 Orange Show.
I really don’t remember if it was riders or carts. We went for the stock car races.
I keep reading “ostrich racing” as “Ostereichring.”
Oh, that’s funny. I don’t remember the stock car races at all, LOL!
I guess I’ll have to tell my sister that it is possible that she is right, but more likely that I am because I was older and paid better attention then she did.
You read what you read and believe what you (choose to) believe. I’ve read a lot about captive elephants and talked to a retired bull man or two, and there’s always the thread of the deep relationships between tame elephants and the humans who work with them, with the elephants being loyal and affectionate, even protective toward and eager to please their human keepers. Any captive elephant could easily demolish a person it was mad at, and they usually don’t; that right there should cast some doubt on the PETA-colored narrative of oppressed, brutalized, enslaved elephants. Again, you’ve read what you’ve read, and believe what you choose to believe, but do try to remember the fact that a lot of these animal protection groups are more about controlling humans than they are about helping animals.
