..The Zoppe Family..

.... Christel Sembach Krone ....

Wojtek Kwiatkowski

....Koheilan Toreifi....




....The elements....




....Postcards from the Paradise....




....The ruler of the desert....




....My friend the wind....




....Desert Track....




....The Game....




....Senses....

Adolph Althoff, (1913 - 1998)

ADOLF ALTHOFF was regarded as the elder statesman of circus life in Germany. He ran what was considered to be one of the most technically perfect circuses in the world and what was one of Germany's most popular shows.

The Althoff circus dynasty traced its heritage back to the mid- 1700s, and like the Fossett family in Britain, was the most prolific and talented of all circus families in their own country. Adolf's father, Dominik, married the haute ecole rider Adele Mark, and they had eight talented children, Carola, Sabine, Helene, Franz, Henriette, Minna, Jeannette and Adolf. Carola, Franz and Adolf were to become Germany's leading circus directors of the early post-war years.

Born in a living wagon in 1913 as the music played at his parents' circus, Adolf was destined for a life in the circus. He became a talented horse trainer, and on his 26th birthday married Maria von der Gathen, from another well-known circus family that specialised in horse training. In 1936 Althoff and his sister Helene formed their own tenting circus, Circus Geschwister Althoff. Their father gave them not only his blessing but also the elephant "Dicki", four horses and eight ponies, some vehicles and uniforms. Although Dominik was somewhat pessimistic about their chances of success, the show was a hit with the German public. In 1937, their top of the bill attraction was a tiger riding on the back of a horse, an act which, years later, Adolf's son Franz was to reproduce and take to America. When Helene parted company to start her own show, Circus Helene Althoff, Adolf continued as Circus Adolf Althoff from 1939. During the Second World War, Adolf and Maria adopted the Enders Brothers, sons of Maria's late sister, who were later to become famous as a bareback riding team. The Althoff circus somehow survived the bombings during the war, and during the Nazi era, Althoff bravely concealed the Jewish identities of two of his favourite performers, Irene Renter, a bareback rider, and her husband, Peter Bento, one of Germany's leading clowns. For saving the couple's lives, Adolf and Maria were honoured, in 1995, by the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Israel. In 1946, the Circus Adolf Althoff made a new start after the war years, opening in Stuttgart and then playing in Pforzheim, Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Meanwhile, Adolf's sister Carola and brother Franz were also carving out remarkable careers for themselves as circus directors. Carola, with her British-born second husband Harry Williams, created the Circus Williams, a huge success in Germany, which eventually went to America to form the basis of a new second unit for the Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus, "The Greatest Show on Earth". Franz Althoff formed a huge three- ring circus that travelled in Germany until the late 1960s and was featured in the 1964 John Wayne film The Magnificent Showman. After the tragic death of Harry Williams in 1950 while performing a chariot racing sequence at Harringay Arena, in London, Adolf joined his sister Carola for a while, taking charge of the technical running of her show before resuming the running of his own establishment. For a while he changed the title to that of Circus Friederike Hagenbeck, since he judged there to be too many circuses with the Althoff title, and the name of Hagenbeck was one of the most respected in Germany. But he reverted to the Circus Adolf Althoff title and finally closed his show in 1965 when it was at its best. By this time, it featured Gord Siemoneit and his wonderful group of wild animals and the astonishing Mexican flying trapeze artistes the Gaonas. Althoff had also revived the tiger on horseback sensation he had first featured back in 1937. In 1966, Althoff's son Franz and his wife Evy worked in Blackpool at the famous Tower Circus with liberty and haute ecole horses but in 1967 the family went to America, where Adolf's tiger on horseback was a featured attraction of "The Greatest Show on Earth" for three years. On their return from America, the Althoff family formed a completely new circus undertaking, Circus Althoff Williams, buying the Williams title from Carola, who had remained in America. Having seen how the major ice spectaculars like Holiday on Ice had travelled by container throughout America, Franz was keen to establish a circus along similar lines. His show become the first and only "containerised" European circus, which Franz ran for a number of years under his father's guidance. Later they toured the Moscow State Circus throughout Germany and regularly took their show to Sweden in partnership with Cirkus Scott. In 1996 the big tenting circus was relaunched very successfully as a "Horse Palace", a travelling musical fantasy featuring horses in a big top. Although Adolf Althoff and his wife had retired to their winter quarters at Stolberg-Breinig, they remained involved with their son's enterprise, periodically travelling with the show until earlier this year. D. Nevill Adolf Althoff, circus performer: born 25 June 1913; married 1939 Maria von der Gathen (one son, one daughter); died Stolberg, Germany 14 October 1998.

Lis Hartel

Stockholm, 16 June 1956: the medallists of the equestrian individual dressage: Lis HARTEL from Denmark on Jubilee, 2nd, Henri SAINT CYR from Sweden on July, 1st, and Liselott LINSENHOFF from Germany on Adular, 3rd. Credit: IOC Olympic Museum Collections


Born: 14 March 1921

Birthplace: Not available

Nationality: Denmark

Sport: Equestrian

ATTENDANCE AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES

Helsinki 1952

Melbourne / Stockholm 1956

AWARDS

Olympic medals:

Silver: 2

Overcoming Paralysis



Women won the right to compete in Olympic dressage for the first time in 1952. One of these pioneers was Lis Hartel of Denmark. In 1944 Hartel, then a 23-year-old pregnant mother, was paralysed by polio. Gradually she reactivated most of her muscles, although she remained paralysed below the knees.

After three years of rehabilitation, she was able to compete in the Scandinavian riding championships and finished second in women's dressage. In 1952, she was chosen to represent Denmark in the Helsinki Olympics. Even though she had to be helped on and off her horse, she responded by earning the silver medal. Four years later, she won another silver medal in Stockholm in 1956.

Cirque Niagara Avaia

Cirque Niagara Avaia is an exciting new attraction I can hardly wait to see. Avaia blends equestian grace with acrobatic artestry in what promises to be an really visual show.

Here is some interesting information on Cirque Niagara Avaia from their press release:

AVAIA is a mystical journey into the abyss of time where ancient mysteries of the past engage with the innovations of the future. Above all, it is a celebration of life and of man's love for horses demonstrating the harmony between mankind and nature. While the horses move in a perfectly timed dressage, the infinitely creative mix of artistry, acrobatics and dance will astonish and spark the imagination. The artists not only defy the laws of gravity, they transcend the laws of nature as they unveil the secret wisdom of the future and of times past.


Creator Mairbek Kantemirov said "We created this show because we wanted to help people to think about why we live in this world and why you were born. We want the audience to come with us through history and in order to better understand what might be possible in the future. Our horses, are there as our partners, actors in the show much like any other performer, rider or cirque artist."
Creator Mairbek Kantemirov and Artistic Director Oleg Kantemirov are world renowned in the circus, theatrical and Russian film industry . They are both part of the great Kantemirov Circus Family Dynasty and their family was the first to create original shows combining acrobats with horses in a circus performance. Mairbek Kantemirov is an internationally acclaimed producer who has won numerous international awards. Oleg Kantemirov has performed in many Cirque du Soleil productions, and has over 25 years experience in both performing and directing.

The Kantemirov Family has been performing with horses in their live circus shows since 1871 and since 1947 in films, stadium and hippodrome shows. With Mairbek Kantemirov's guidance, they have engaged Russia's greatest equestrian theatrical riders, acrobats and cirque artists to create this show for which there is no comparison in either the circus or theatrical realm. Audiences will see some of the world's rarest breeds of horses carefully selected from Europe and Russia for this spectacular show.

The composer is Vasily Ksenin from the Russian Music Academy's "Gnesin Academy of Music" and has also composed for several productions at the Moscow Theatre. Choreography is by Vasily Ushenko of the Moscow Theatre and the Horse Trainers are Mairbek Kantemirov and Valeri Tichov.

Costume Design is by Irina Kazmina, who has designed costumes for the Bolshoi Theatre and by Tatiana Voloh who is a leading independent Russian fashion designer. Art Design is by Anatoly Lunin and Sound and Lighting Design is by Sound Box Productions, based in Hamilton, Ontario.

Cirque Niagara Avaia is a new $10 million production which features world-class Cirque performers and is specifically designed for Niagara. It is the fruits of a partnership between Niagara Parks and Cirque Niagara.
Starting this spring, two huge circus tents will help transform Rapidsview Park (across from Marineland) into a dynamic venue for visitors to see something really unique in Cirque Niagara Avaia.

EU tightens reins for horse trade

Horses are getting the equivalent of pet passports




The new regulation is due to come into force in July next year.

Owners will have to get an electronic chip inserted into their foal's neck in the first six months after its birth.

The plan is to prevent the spread of diseases and avoid the risk of horsemeat going on sale from animals that have been given medication.

Horsemeat is eaten widely in the EU. Countries where it appears on the menu include Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia.

A pet passport scheme which allows cats and dogs into Britain without quarantine has been in effect since February 2000.

Dogs and cats which have been microchipped, vaccinated and tested for rabies are allowed into Britain without having to spend six months in quarantine.

The European Commission's new regulation, announced on Monday, does not affect imports of equine animals from countries outside the EU, nor those that are left to roam wild.

An animal included in the scheme will have a lifetime passport and a "unique life number" that stays with it, even if its name changes.

COLE HORSE BARNS TEEM WITH ACTIVITY

By Earl L. Sisson
The News-Sentinel, Saturday, January 19, 1935

In the feverish activity that is making circus history at Cole Bros. winter quarters, probably no department is busier these days than the horse barns, where training is followed on daily schedule comparable with the best and most exacting school.
Under the general supervision of Capt. H. J. McFarlan, veteran equestrine director, classes start promptly at 9 a.m., and continue throughout the morning. An hour's rest at noon, when clean, bright timothy hay and liberal portions of oats are served, and back again at one o'clock for a full afternoon which continues until darkness intervenes.
"This mercurial program is necessary --" says Capt. 'Mac.' as he is known familiarly about the stables, "because every horse here, excepting, of course Mr. Christiansen's Liberty act, are new and up to the time they arrived here, had never known what training was. Many, in fact, were purchased on the western ranges and never had a halter on them. And to teach horses to perform up to the standard set by Mr. Terrell and Mr. Adkins for the new Cole circus, means hard, conscientious work, every minute of every day."
It was Capt. McFarlan's reference to new, unbroken steeds that makes the results now seem in each of the several training rings, so remarkable.
Let us move up to the north end of the big, 250-foot barn - to the ring where Jorgen M. Christiansen is breaking sixteen perfectly matched cream-colored westerners to duplicate the almost unbelievable feats of his eight famous Cremoline stallions, said to be the finest trained horses on earth.
These sixteen light dun animals with white manes and tails were roaming the wide open spaces of the great West some two months ago, when McFarlan set out to find them. He traveled by train, by auto, yes, even by airplane durng the search. With the famous Christiansen Cremolines as his specimen or type and color and conformity, he traveled approximately three thousand miles, hunting, dickering, buying. At a ranch three hundred miles north of Yellowstone Park, he purchased the first animal, and before he had completed his journey, he was in the Panhandle of Texas, having covered Montana, Wyoming, parts of South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado and New Mexico. But he had the horses. And of all the sixteen, only one had ever been haltered, while but three had ever seen a barn.
Six weeks ago, they were turned over to Mr. Christiansen, the man who brought the famous Liberty Horses, which amazed this country in 1923, half way across Siberia, through a part of Russia during the Red Revolution, succeeded in reaching Poland after a 15-hundred mile trek, many times within sound of Bolshevick guns, and emerged finally victorious in the great Polish Circus at Warsaw.
Christiansen split the horses into teams-of-eight and went to work. The results he has obtained are outstanding, almost incomprehensable. It is doubtful indeed, if such a feat has ever before been accomplished in so short a period of time.
Moving down the barn, we find Capt. John Smith, in charge of the highschool group, - thoroughbreds from the Bluegrass country, parading, dancing, rearing, jumping; and lovely ladies sitting on them with a grace that would put a Cossack colonel to shame.
And these beautiful, trim, steeds, like their cream-colored neighbors have learned everything they know about tangoes and rhumbas in this short but intensive six-weeks course.
There's Cyclone, a beautiful dark chestnut stallion that makes your eyes sparkle in admiration as he goes through his several dance numbers, rears up erect and tapers off with a neat bow to one knee; his beautiful neck superbly arched, eyes aflash, nostrils distended. Then there's a dozen of his team-mates - horses that fulfill every tradition of the thoroughbreds that they really are.
Then there's the pony ring under supervision of Capt. Merritt Belew. One sees these snappy little Shetlands run and jump, and wheel and caracole while shaggy Callies frolic and romp, ride and flop; and monkey jockeys hang on, chattering, weilding tiny crops in true Derby fashion. It's a spectacle that will stir the hearts of Americans from childhood through to dotage.
With the pony acts completed come those snooty little ducks. Tricksters, yes, and what stunts they have up their clownish sleeves.
Satire de luxe, with plenty of irony thrown in. They connive to rob you of your grouch; to turn the severe into the ridiculous. And they succeed with a bang.
And of course, there are the old dobbins that are hitched to the shays with the small barred windows at the ends, where black, bewhiskered muzzles sniff to make you wonder what kind of cat or bruin or behemoth rules within. They are the work horses, mostly whites or dappled grays, menials you may call them, but they are just as dramatically woven into the warp and woof of a complete circus, as the gilded wagons, the plodding elephants or the roaring lions.
Yes there are horses, whites, creams, sorrals, bays, calicos and blacks. Bucking broncs that defy their riders. Broad backed, wide hipped equestrines so familiar in the bareback acts and sleek, trim, jumpers to which an ordinary fence would mean nothing at all.
They will all be there in plumes and spangles when the show sets sail for the 1935 run, opeing in Chicago on April 20th.

Dressage

Equestrian is the only Olympic sport where man and animal are established team-mates, and one of the few where men and women compete on equal terms.

It is the ultimate in team sports, a horse and rider working together for years to hone feats of grace, daring, agility and speed.

Chariot races and horse riding appeared in Greece's ancient Games, but most of the equestrian programme as we know it began in the Olympic Games of 1912. It includes three disciplines - dressage, jumping and three-day event - each with individual and team competition.

COMPETITION

Often described as horses performing ballet, dressage has changed little since the Renaissance. The term stems from a French word for training, and European cavalrymen developed the idea for use on the battlefield and the parade ground. The horse performs set movements, or tests, in response to its rider's subtle aids and signals. The event is conducted over three rounds. In the first two, horse and rider perform a set routine of dressage movements, including passages, pirouettes and piaffes in a walk, trot and canter. The third round is freestyle, with routines individually choreographed and performed to music.

The scoring is done by judges who evaluate how well the horse executes the moves. During the Olympics four days are devoted to dressage.

Almost Extinct

Przewalski's Horse

This wild horse was declared extinct in the wild in the 1970s. National Zoo scientists are part of an international effort to preserve the species.

Almost Extinct

Przewalski's Horse

This wild horse was declared extinct in the wild in the 1970s. National Zoo scientists are part of an international effort to preserve the species.