Ostrich Racing

To finish off my sports blog, that has mostly been about smaller sports that might have never heard of, I’m going to talk about the weirdest sport yet… Ostrich Racing. When I first saw this I had to do a double-take because I did not think there was anyway that you could race with ostriches because they are just such weird animals, so when I saw this, I knew that I had to blog about it for you guys to read.

In the sport of Ostrich Racing, people get on the backs of ostriches and they ride them. Ostriches can be ridden similarly to horses with wagons, special saddles, reins and bits. It is said that it is harder to ride an ostrich, than it is to ride a horse. I know that riding a horse is not easy, so riding an ostrich must be very difficult.

When the race is about to start the jockey, which is the person who rides the ostrich, likes to examine their ostrich to make sure that they are ready to go. Before the race, the ostrich and jockey are in a pen that is very similar to one that would be at a horse race. The only protective gear that is worn by a jockey is head gear, even though it is very common for the jockey to fall out of the wagon that is attached to the ostrich. If the ostrich gets too uncomfortable, it is common of them to wiggle their way out of the jockey’s grip.

Ostrich Racing is a more common sport in South Africa and in the United States! I had never even heard of Ostrich Racing before this, but apparently it is a big thing here in America. It is popular in places like Chandler in Arizona, Jacksonville in Florida, Virginia City in Nevada, New Orleans in Louisiana, Canterbury Park in Minnesota, Ellis Park in Kentucky and Prairie Meadows in Iowa.

Ostriches are the fastest on-land bird and can run a whopping forty-three miles an hour. These birds are about eight feet-tall and about three-hundred pounds heavy. The birds love to smash into walls and try to get the human off their back, which is why it is fun to watch. It is really more of a rodeo than it is a race because all the ostrich wants to do is get you off of their back. Many riders who talk about the sport say that it is awful and you are so scared the entire time of when the ostrich is going to throw you off and crush you. When you try to ride the ostrich, the neck swivels around like crazy and shakes, smashes walls and there are hundreds of people in the stands cheering. They all want the bird to throw you off because it is funny when people get thrown off things.

This seems like a very interesting sport that was created more for humor than to actually have a new competitive sport. I do not think I’d ever try this.