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TROY METZLER – TRAINING THE RINGLING ROOKIES
by John M. Regan (from AAT Magazine 2000)
I have this vision of the ideal job. It involves being paid to travel around the country in a vibrant, exciting profession, with talented, dedicated people. And, of course, elephants.
Troy Metzler knows what I mean. Troy trains elephants for Ringling Brothers Circus. More specifically, he trains the younger elephants, those generally under ten years of age. It’s Troy’s lot in life to take these “rookies” and break them into life on the road in a circus act.
After enjoying the show at Kemper Arena in Kansas City I went backstage hoping to interview one of the trainers. The first person I ran into was Troy Metzler, self described “Baby Elephant Trainer.” Troy has eighteen years of experience with baby pachyderms. “My whole career,” he said, “has been young elephants.”
Inside the cavernous backstage area of the Kemper arena Troy and I sat down outside of his small mobile home, parked by circus custom, for twenty-four hour a day viewing of his charges. Over a background blare of raucous trombone music I interviewed Troy about his profession.
Originally from Akron, Ohio, Troy owes his love of circus to a mother who would pull him out of school to see a show. “Elephants have always been my passion,” he said. “As soon as I was old enough I ran away with the circus.”
The bulk of Troy’s elephant training education began during a seven-year stint with African Country Safari in Cambridge, Ontario under the tutelage of Charlie Gray. “One of the best elephant trainers I’ve ever met,” said Troy. His experience with Ringling began in 1988 in Japan where he worked with the circus for about a year. In 1990 he again worked for Ringling at their Michigan breeding facility. He’s been with the circus steadily for the past two years and recently signed another two-year contract.
Young elephants, by the Ringling definition, are those animals from about two to ten years old. The circus gets most of their newborns from their own breeding facility in Florida. Currently Ringling has four pregnant elephants, all of which will be born over the next two years. (With over fifty elephants in the Ringling stable, many retired just for breeding, more will certainly be on the way.) The circus also works with zoos for artificial insemination as well as other medical studies. At the Ringling Center in Florida, Gary Jacobs, Head Trainer, does the initial training for the baby elephants. After this “green breaking” the young ones are sent off to one of the Ringling shows for inclusion into a proper circus act. At the Red Show, they meet Troy who obviously loves his work. “I’ve been fortunate to have been around a lot of green broke elephants,” he explained. “They’re a handful because they are young and rambunctious. They take more time, just like any kids. My job is to bring them out and expose them to all of the new, exciting things of the world. In the off season I practice the act with them plus I jog about a mile a day with them.”
I asked Troy about some of the unique aspects of breaking in the rookies. “It’s hard; it’s a lot of work,” he said. “But once they get their routine down it’s the small stuff down you really have to watch out for when they get out in front of the public. You have to be watching for that thing that will blow across the parking lot that might spook them. They’re in a new environment and the ‘boogey man’ shows up everywhere. You have to watch them constantly.”
So how do you solve that? “Expose them to everything,” says Troy. “We’ll walk them everywhere we can possibly walk. Hallways, horse stalls, pass the tigers, everywhere. We let the other trainers know that we are going to bring the elephants by. We might go into the horse tent and just practice walking by horses. The same for camels, zebras – anything that will tolerate us, we try to get the elephants to tolerate.”
What about the crowd noise, etc.? “When they are being trained down in Florida, there is a sound system up that reproduces the circus noise. Plus we do a full show; music, lights, everything.”
When Troy receives an elephant he’s familiar with the routine that the animal knows. Since all of the elephant don’t necessarily do the same tricks, or to the same degree of proficiency, Troy picks out who does what the best and works that into an act. His method also builds in a lot of flexibility. “In just three days I can change the whole routine,” he said. “You simply do the same trick at a different time or place”
Currently Troy has three elephants: eight-year-old Juliette, seven-year-old Bonny, and five year old Kelley Ann. Two other three year olds, Doc and Angelica, are almost ready to join the show and will be integrated with this herd. All are Asians. I asked Troy if he has ever had an elephant that he couldn’t handle, or that proved too much trouble to train.
“They males tend to get that way when they become adults, but Ringling has a facility to handle that. We can send them down there and retire them for breeding.”
When I commented on the homogeneous Asian population of the Red Show Troy offered this observation. “Asians are kind of like a draft horse, as opposed to an African elephant which is more like a thoroughbred. Asians have been worked for thousands of years, although Africans are just as intelligent. I think the years of poaching and ivory hunting have made them much more wary.”
One of the things I’ve always found interesting about the care of circus elephants are the spare enclosures found in circuses. By necessity, zoos have sturdy; escape proof enclosures while circus elephants are kept in surroundings that look positively flimsy. Circus elephants, due to their training and constant supervision, don’t need that. Troy’s “kids” wander around a large area secured by nothing more that a single strand cattle fence. The same barrier held in two other groups of adult elephants. “The fence is not normally on,” Troy explained, “but you do have to test it, of course.”
The Red Show has three groups of elephants, separated by age. Besides Troy’s group the show has two others, both aged in their thirties. The members of these herds have grown up together, thereby creating an association that will probably remain intact all of their lives. Ringling is watchful about animals that do not get along. These elephants are separated and either placed into a performing herd were they fit in or end up at the Ringling facility in Florida. “Elephants are just too valuable,” said Troy. “You can’t take a chance of an injury.”
We talked for a while afterward, swapping stories about elephants and mutual friends. With the next show just minutes away it was soon time to wrap up our interview. I left with a renewed sense of understanding about the way Ringling manages its elephants, and an appreciation for what they doing to preserve the species. As always I was impressed by dedication shown by circus people for the animals upon which their livelihood depends. Troy summed it up perfectly. “I’m with my elephants from seven in the morning until eleven o’clock at night, seven days a week. And I can tell you that when we bring a new elephant out here it’s going to be very comfortable, because I’m going to do everything I can to make it comfortable.”
Note: Lest anyone out there has the idea that Ringling mistreats its elephants; let me disabuse you of that idea. These animals are not only well cared for they are part of the foremost elephant breeding program in the nation, if not the world. Ringling is a leader in this contribution to elephant conservation. HOOAH, Jack
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