The Yorkton Exhibition Summer Fair had a visit from some agile animals. The Bowmanville Zoo's Animal Acrobats show brought together baboons, horses, camels, zebras and other animals to demonstrate their abilities and thrill the crowd.
Caleb Carinci, head trainer for the display, says it has been around for about four years and is one of many different touring shows that the group does throughout Canada. The zoo has about 300 animals, and does a lot of film, television and circus work, including training a tiger featured in Life of Pi.
Carinci says that he began working with horses when he was 13. He was brought in to a circus family who taught him how to care for the animals as well as do tricks, such as standing on the horses. Since then, he learned how to train the more exotic animals.
The main challenge for going on the road with a travelling animal show is the same as any travelling performance, dealing with the different personalities. Carinci says that the animals all have their different quirks and he has to deal with each of them, and try to make it work.
"It's a work in social skills, but on an animal level," he explains.
For example, Carinci notes that the miniature horse and the zebra have become fast friends over the course of the tour, to the point where when they attempted to take the horse for a walk and the zebra would get distressed and try to get out of the pen.
"They don't mind going out in the show separately, because they know that it's show time and they know that it's work time, but if you try to take one away for even a few minutes, the other one goes, "No, my friend is gone! I have to climb over the fence and go get him,"" Carinci notes.
It was Carinci's first time in Saskatchewan, and he says that it has been a good time. The heat was a bit of a challenge, but he says that the animals are built for the weather, and as someone from originally Florida, so is he.
