Brett Carden, elephant trainer with the El Mina Shrine Circus, gives 42-year-old Asian elephant Dutchess a bath Thursday afternoon outside Ford Park Arena. Elephants need to be bathed often - with special soap - to ensure their skin does not dry out. Beth Rankin/The EnterpriseCircus is life for one family
By BETH RANKIN October 17, 2009
Just feet from a slumbering lion, Stevie Coronas runs her hand along Albert's back as he snacks on a pile of hay.
She makes a clicking noise with her mouth to get the 8-year-old Friesian stallion's attention.
"Come here, Albert," she said, and he instantly snaped his head up, looking her square in the eye and awaiting his next command.
His obedience is rewarded with a rub on the nose as Coronas coos in his ear.
Coronas - considered the "Circus Mom" - moves from stall to stall, brushing, polishing and braiding manes, preparing the horses for the opening night of the El Mina Shrine Circus at Ford Arena.
She stops to scold her 4-year-old son as his curiosity leads him a little too close to three Asian elephants lounging nearby.
"Don't you even think about doing that again," she calls out. "Elephants are not horses and you could get hurt."
For Coronas, a seventh-generation circus worker, the El Mina circus is both her career and the center of her family's activities.
From February to November, Coronas and her husband, Serge, travel the country with their four children and two grandchildren, setting up, performing in and tearing down the traditional three-ring circus in each town they visit.
"We don't know anything different," Coronas said. "We were born and raised out here."
Just feet from a slumbering lion, Stevie Coronas runs her hand along Albert's back as he snacks on a pile of hay.
She makes a clicking noise with her mouth to get the 8-year-old Friesian stallion's attention.
"Come here, Albert," she said, and he instantly snaped his head up, looking her square in the eye and awaiting his next command.
His obedience is rewarded with a rub on the nose as Coronas coos in his ear.
Coronas - considered the "Circus Mom" - moves from stall to stall, brushing, polishing and braiding manes, preparing the horses for the opening night of the El Mina Shrine Circus at Ford Arena.
She stops to scold her 4-year-old son as his curiosity leads him a little too close to three Asian elephants lounging nearby.
"Don't you even think about doing that again," she calls out. "Elephants are not horses and you could get hurt."
For Coronas, a seventh-generation circus worker, the El Mina circus is both her career and the center of her family's activities.
From February to November, Coronas and her husband, Serge, travel the country with their four children and two grandchildren, setting up, performing in and tearing down the traditional three-ring circus in each town they visit.
"We don't know anything different," Coronas said. "We were born and raised out here."
What an awesome circus! Where are they performing next?!
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