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by Dennis Bright (Part 3) I was watching a movie with my family the other evening, "Swiss Family Robinson" a Disney classic. Part of the story line revolved around the children and their adventures capturing wild animals on their island, One of which was a zebra they gentled and trained to be ridden. The movie reminded me of my training Singh-Singh a yearling Grant’s zebra and that I hadn’t finished writing the story of her experience here at Bright Ranch. I last left off writing about the gentling process and how incredibly quick her reflexes were. Once I came to terms with her flight response and striking range I was able to begin handling her. I started by working with Singh-Singh in her box stall by slowly stepping into her shoulder and offering a small handful of grain. Each time she would nibble the grain I would gently rub her neck with a halter until she accepted my touch and was comfortable with my presence. Then slowly I lifted the halter around her nose and quietly buckled the halter on after a moment she looked at as if to say "now get this thing off me." For several days I worked with her in the confines of the box stall until I felt confident that she was ready to go out into the real world. One morning as I was getting ready to lead her out of her stall she startled and pulled the lead rope from my hand, having anticipated that I had closed the front sliding doors to the barn’s breezeway. However I had left the backdoors open. There are additional paddocks behind the barn and I wasn’t worried about her getting through or over them. What I hadn’t counted on was her going underneath the bottom rail, like a dog scooting under a fence. When she popped up she was nose to nose with my big Appaloosa "Cap". It was a toss up who was the most shocked "Cap" or "Singh- Singh". I gave them both a moment to settle down and was very amused at the zebra’s response, I had kept her by herself for the first few weeks so this was the first time she had any company, she kept on sidestepping up to "Cap" and he kept moving away from her, he really didn’t know what to think of this funny striped looking pony. Little did he know in a few short days he would be helping me teach her how to lead. The zebra’s next adventure was the round pen training, an enclosed training arena that is fifty feet in diameter with solid walls. My goal in round pen training is willful submission, I accomplish this by understanding the survival and herd instinct of the animal. Within the small arena I can influence direction and speed creating an environment where what I would like her to do I make easy and what she wants to do I make difficult. This is a very simple description of round pen training. What was different with the zebra was that her herd instinct was so strong that I had a challenging time getting her away from me on my terms. I was the only other being in the round pen with her. I remedied that by introducing to her our pinto pony "Buster" who was about the same size but was considerably older and wasn’t about to be intimidated by all those stripes. I gave them a couple of days together to sort out the herd order, "Buster" was the alpha and the Zebra was very happy to let him be the boss. I started working them together in the round pen and it wasn’t long at all before they looked like they belonged in the circus together, every move I asked of "Buster" the little Zebra was right there next to him side by side. The next stage of her learning involved learning how to stand quietly while tied to a hitching rail. I kept her pony friend along side of her at the rail while I tied her to a truck inner tube that was secured to the tie rail. It wasn’t long before she figured out that inner tube was going to stretch and stretch and when she quit pulling it quit. Within about twenty minutes she was standing there nice and calm as if she had been doing it all her life. One of the next challenges we faced together was teaching her to allow me to handle her feet. As I had mentioned earlier a zebra has a very fast strike and or kick response when they feel the least bit threatened. When I taught her how to tie her resistance to being tied came from the containment of her flight response. The next stage was to convince her to allow me to pick up her feet, which she perceived as an even more serious threat to her safety. And I could understand her fear; first I tied her up, then took her feet away, that is why it’s so important to create a safe place at the tie rail and have developed an alpha relationship with the animal. I initially started working with a thick cotton rope around the legs, I would pull and hold the leg up until she relaxed a accepted the pressure, with a lot of repetition she finally understood that I was not going to hurt her and she allowed me to handle her hooves. After I taught her how to lead I would take her for walks around the ranch and she would follow me where ever I went. She eventually came to enjoy her unique status her on the ranch and was a favorite with everyone who came to visit. I enjoyed the challenge of training the zebra and was grateful for the creative learning opportunities that our time together created. In hindsight I now have a much greater understanding now of the equine mind and how with patience and understanding almost anything is possible! Last modified: Sunday, July 28, 2002 |
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