Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Dodie wrote:

 

>>I'm no expert, but what I do know about Zebras is that their herd heirarchy is actaully like antelope, goats, etc where a herd consists of several breeding males who are also the main defensive troops.  In a horse herd, flight overrules fight.  In a Zebra herd, fight overrules flight.  Has something to do witht he type of predators found in Africa (I don't remember the exact nature).

 

Not really.  Fight will generally prevail unless an animal is cornered.  Because the herds are larger than most horse herds, and because zebras and wildebeest tend to graze together (thereby increasing the number of prey species open to any predator), the animal’s chances of evading capture by a predator are pretty good if it runs.  The stripes also serve to confuse predators.

 

>>And I have read in several articles that Zebras are difficult to train because their nature is fight first, ask questions later.  They are also closer to the feral nature (like a bobcat versus a house cat) which gives them deeper instincts to overcome in the training process.  This is because they were never domesticated and so the survival insticts were not bred out of them through selective breeding.  (like wild horses, who are actually domestic horses gone back to nature)

 

They’re extremely difficult to train.  The movie Racing Stripes was supposed to use a zebra and wound up using painted ponies.  A friend of mine lent her 3yo unraced TBs to the movie.  The trainer had the horses practically jumping through hoops but couldn’t get the zebra to do anything.  The foal which they used was a zebra foal, she now lives with one of my ex-neighbours and is very sweet, but not exactly trainable.  She pretty much does as she likes J

 

>>Personally, I wouldn't want a Zebra - they're nasty tempered and mean,

 

Nope, they’re just not trainable.  The foal I mentioned doesn’t have a mean bone in her body, she’s just not interested in doing tricks for people.  I have a dog like that.  She’s not nasty, she just doesn’t believe in going “down” on command – and she’s had some very good trainers work with her.  I accept her as she is.

 

>>they're pretty ugly

 

They’re BEAUTIFUL!!

 

>>and probably require a lot of specialized care I don't know about.

 

They’re hardy as hell, look fantastic even during a drought and have feet to die for.  They’re immune to most of the diseases that kill horses, including African Horse Sickness, encephalosis and biliary.  They can survive for days without water, and they’re all muscle.

 

 

>>  BUT!  I would accept that challenge, too (grin).  And I see Zorse's for sale all over the internet, and some of these people have Zebra studs...I'll email several of them to find out their experiences with training a Zebra.

 

You wanna train a zebra, mate?  Be my guest….I can source one for you easily.  A Zebra and a zorse are VERY different!

 

Just promise me one thing – I get to watch!!

 

Tracey