Wednesday, February 22, 2017

#15 Animal Farms

Barbara's mother Lalea Ray.

Posted by Buckles at 2/22/2017 05:25:00 AM

2 comments:

BARBARA WOODCOCK said...

This is Lalea Leotta Ray ( my father always introduced her as Madam Ray.) My Mother always had a knack with exotic animals. I have mentioned on Face Book several times that she also trained Zebras for pick out. She used two separate sets of cues for them. She also trained Queenie with the Zebra & a Dalmatian dog. They called it Queenie and her spots & stripes. Queenie also did the water skiing. As Mom always said there is no training to it, you just walk them onto the skis ( pontoon ) and the boat pulls it. No big deal. Of course you put leg chains for safety. My Mother trained all the animals for the Bill Green's Farm in Fairlee, Vt. And as I mentioned in Face Book Mother was the first person to take animals into The Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, Fl. On the Dailey Bros. Circus my Mother trained five rings of different breeds of dogs. And a Comedy Balloon Basket Ball playing Boxer Dog Act. I worked 10 White Spitz and one Great Pyrenees Dog, making it eleven dogs in all. When the Pyrenees stood on his hind legs to do a hind leg walk, he was as tall as I was at the time. He also did the rope balance. And held the rope for the jump rope dogs. My Mother worked the Alaskan huskies. But think of it five rings of all different breeds of dogs working at the same time.....Barbara....

22 February, 2017 15:11
Roger Smith said...

This is my first time to know of a Huskie act, prior to Gee Gee's. She inspired followers to at least think of it. We all recall the great Jimmy Douglas story, when he was sitting there one day, working up his spec creations. Someone ran in and enthused, "I'm gonna do Huskies, just like Gee Gee." Never looking up, Jimmy intoned, "If you do Huskies, you'll never do them like Gee Gee."

23 February, 2017 17:44

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