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by Dennis Bright (Part 1) I remember the phone ringing in the ranch office last year about this time and a women said "Hello, my name is Leanne and my vet, Dr.Doug Novick, and my horseshoer, Bob Breodlow, recommended you as a trainer." This was to be the beginning of an adventure in training that I will never forget. The animal that she needed help with had recently attacked its vet while being vaccinated and kicked its horseshoer down the hill, head over heels, while its hooves were being trimmed . She explained that they had hand raised and bottle fed it as a baby and during that time and it had been much easier to handle; now it was out of control and they were afraid it might hurt their children. I explained that I had a lot of experience with problem and dangerous horses and would be willing to try and help them with their horse. She said " Oh, it’s not a horse, it’s a zebra!" That was the beginning of my relationship with "Singh-Singh" a one year old Grants zebra. I explained that I had no experience training zebras and really couldn’t promise them anything, but if they were willing to allow me a month with the filly, a young female, I would give it my best and see what happens. They agreed and we arranged a date to transport her to the ranch. I called Dr. Novick and told him that I had agreed to work with the zebra and asked if he would consider helping me load "Singh-Singh" into a horse trailer. He said that he would be happy to help and that it would be fun to see someone else get kicked for a change; vets have a twisted sense of humor sometimes. The next thing I did was called another vet who I work with, Dr. Roger Bruce, and asked him what he knew about working with zebras. He told me of one of his clients who owned a zebra and a pet elk and that the elk was easier to handle then the zebra. His advice was "Don’t waste your time and take the chance of getting hurt". I told him that it was a little too late because I had already taken the job. His words weren’t exactly what I had hoped to hear, which is often the case when people ask for advice. The zebra was located in the hills above Los Gatos. They had her stabled in a small barn with a large turnout area surrounded by a six foot cyclone fence. Her barn mate was a three year old miniature horse by the name of Dakota. I mention him because he was to prove extremely useful in helping with "Singh-Singh" little latter on. One of my main concerns was how to safely coordinate moving the zebra from the barn to the trailer, then down a small lane that opened onto a residential street. I didn’t want to have her get away from us then end up galloping through downtown Los Gatos. My hope was to handle her quietly, minimize the stress involved and have Dr. Novick not tranquilize her. I arranged to have one of my students, Ted Jaworski, assist me with the move; he’s very cool under pressure and is a rather big guy. Next I borrowed a small enclosed stock trailer from one of our clients, Ellen Burton; my two-horse trailer was too open and I was afraid that she might try and jump and injure herself while we were driving down the road. I have a saying I use quite often around these situations "Plan for the worst, hope for the best and accept whatever happens." The way I approached the move was to handle the zebra the same way that we transport our longhorn cattle which was to drive her into a narrow lane that we created from portable panels and into the trailer. Zebras are wild animals that have incredible reflexes and are pound for pound much stronger then their domestic equine counterparts. Their herd instinct is overwhelming and to try and separate a zebra from a herd mate is almost impossible; this is where the little miniature horse came in. I used him as bait to entice the zebra into the lane. Her desire to stay with him was greater then her fear of us. I led Dakota to the trailer and actually had to help lift him up and into the trailer since he was a short fat little guy. With a little pressure from behind and a couple of missed kicks later "Singh-Singh" jumped up and into the trailer. Next, the tough part was getting Dakota out without losing the zebra. We accomplished this by chasing the zebra to the front of the trailer and dragging the little horse out, then quickly shutting the door behind him. In a little less then an hour we were on the road with our wild zebra in tow, heading to her new temporary home at the Bright Ranch. (To be continued…) (Part 2)In my last column, I introduced you to one of my past adventures, training "Singh-Singh" a beautiful young female zebra. When she first arrived I was really excited at the opportunity to experience first hand the behavior of a wild exotic zebra. The intriguing part was the close resemblance of the zebra to the modern horse. My hope was to better understand instinctual equine behavior. The zebra to me was the perfect primitive horse, minus the influence of Mankind’s best efforts at domestication. I can recall walking through the breezeway of the barn, late in the afternoon prior to feeding the horses and hearing for the very first time, the singing of the zebra. I remember looking around wondering, "What in the heck is that noise?" It was a sound I was completely unfamiliar with. It really did take me a moment to figure out it was the zebra! Well, describing the sound she was making as singing might be a bit generous, it sounded more like the screech of a rusty door hinge being forced open over and over again, which is how she came to be named "Singh-Singh". She would continue with this braying throughout the day for the first couple of weeks of her visit, until she finally settled into her new routine. My first goal in her training was to help her to calm down and not panic every time someone walked by her stall. Zebras have an incredibly fast flight response with no hesitation. When startled, she would run right into the wall, scrambling in a blind panic to find a way out. In the beginning, her mad dashes resulted in a number of abrasions on her head, which is why I kept her in a small box stall to keep her from self-destructing. I slowly introduced myself to her during her first week with me, by feeding her breakfast and quietly entering her stall each morning with a small wooden bench to sit on while she was preoccupied with her hay. This gave me the chance to study her body language and share her space in a non-threatening way. In the beginning she would quickly retreat to the far side of the stall and stomp her front hoof and shake her head at me as if to say, "Do you mind? I would rather eat alone!" Slowly, she would make her way back to her flake of hay, hugging the far wall of her stall, trying to stay as far away from me as possible. After a few days of this she gradually began to accept my presence as part of the morning routine and would pretend to ignore me sitting in the corner. The next change occurred over the next couple of mornings, she began to view me as less of a threat and more like a herd mate. She would pin her long ears back and swing her hindquarters towards me and kick out occasionally with her nearest hind leg. This was her way of explaining to me to stay away from her food and was an attempt on her part to establish her dominance over her new two-legged herd mate, me. I really enjoyed those mornings with "Singh-Singh" as she began to teach me how the mind of a zebra worked. Once she began to accept me on her terms, my hands on training was ready to begin. The first step was to buckle a halter on her head so that I could control her outside the stall and give her some exercise time in the round pen. I learned rather quickly how fast this animal was. The first attempt at haltering was met with a rapid fire offensive attack, she lunged attempting to bite me, striking with her front leg and twisting her body in the air and kicking me with her left hind leg. I still smile when I think of that first encounter and how surprisingly fast she was. I can remember thinking, "She sure got me that time". It didn’t take me long to figure out I had my work cut out for me. I was beginning to understand the difference between zebras and horses. Horses will almost always exhibit body language in that situation that says, "Stay away from me," and if the trainer persists in the approach the horse will attempt to bluff the trainer by tentatively charging or turning their hip towards the person as if to say, "Don’t come any closer, I really don’t want to kick you." The zebra on the other hand showed no hesitation at all by immediately going on the attack. This fight response was designed by Mother Nature to help her survive in the wild on the plains of Africa. I decided at that point to begin handling her as if she were a wild mustang. An old horseman taught me many years ago how to broom a horse that was too wild to approach safely. I used a regular long bristle broom, that you would use to sweep out the kitchen with. The broom gave me about a five foot reach and kept my body out of harms way. During this part of her training I worked with her two or three times per day for five to ten minutes per session, any longer than that and her adrenaline would start pumping and she would start to panic. My goal for this part of her training was to teach her that the broom was not going to hurt her and to accept the touch of a brush. By keeping my distance I also was able to separate myself from the conflict, her focus was on the broom and not me. I was amazed at the accuracy of her kicks. When horses kick at an object they kick in the general direction of their target, I’ve watched horses kick out at dogs several times and rarely make contact. The zebra on the other hand almost never missed even when I was trying to move the broom away from her strike zone. She would kick the broom so hard it would fly out of my hand and smack against the wall. "Singh-Singh" was so agile she would do multiple kicks going almost perpendicular to the ground and looked like she was doing a handstand. To be continued… Last modified: Sunday, July 28, 2002 |
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