One more early horse memory was our annual visit to Cirkus Schumann, a family run circus which was headquartered in the middle of København, only a block or two from Tivoli Gardens. They would have daily shows all through the summer. They always had several numbers with horses, and their horses, other than an occassional pony, were all ARABIANS! Beautiful and smart ARABIANS! They did all sorts of neat stuff, like liberty drills where they would walk on their hind legs, walk sideways, walk with the front feet on the edge of the ring, dance, stand on a platform with the front and walk around the platform with the hind legs, etc. They would do "dressage", i.e. dancing while being ridden. They would do vaulting. The perforing horses were always stallions, and they would work alone or in teams. They had a white (grey) team and a black team, and a few bays. I particular remember one, named "Sabu". When I first noticed him he worked with the black team, but then he started turning grey, so for a few years he worked solo, before he turned light enough to work with the white team. So I was brought up believing that Arabians were intelligent and very trainable animals, rather than the flaky, nutso creatures they have a reputation for being here in the US. At the time I think the Cirkus Schumann Arabians were pretty much the only Arabians in Denmark. Never thought about it as a child, but I assume they came mostly from the studs in Poland and England.
There were of course all sorts of other acts; clowns, high wire walkers, trapeze acts, and all the other typical circus acts. One year they even had a couple of GIRAFFES, but the acts with the horses were always my favorites.
I found this pic on Google Earth. The Cirkus building still looks pretty much as I remember it, except for that awful purple "WALLMANS" placard.
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