Introducing Zack the Show Jumping Zebra!
Ever wanted to ride a Zebra but thought it was impossible? Well, think again, a six year old Zebra in America not only has all the necessary horse tack, but is also now being trained and ridden. Could this be the first show jumping Zebra?!
Owner and trainer, Sammi Jo Stohler from Eastern Oregon, USA has a background in training horses before she moved onto exotic animals. She got the idea to start jumping one of her four Zebra’s, Zack, when he kept jumping the fence out of his field. Using his talents, he has easily taken to the jumps becoming quite the natural.
"He's large pony size, but he jumps very easily," said Sammi "The first time I pointed him at the jump, I put it really low. But he likes jumping, and going higher was no problem."
Sammi got her first taste of the African animal 10 years ago and now has Zack who she rides, Charlie who she drives and two others; Zorse and Zedonk. She set out to train the Zebras to prove critics wrong.
"To say something is untrainable implies that it can't learn, and we all know that if they couldn't learn, they'd all be extinct. They have to be able to learn and adapt. Obviously, the burden lies on the trainer to be able to train them," she said.
"Zebras are very intelligent. When you teach them something, you don't have to do a lot of review."
Sammi took over ownership of Zack two years ago when his owners couldn’t look after him anymore as he wasn’t very accustomed to humans. Now, with training, Zack can be groomed and ridden like any pony!
"A lot of people don't really know how to handle them, so they run into problems, and rather than trying to fix it, they give up," she said.
"Originally, I was going to work with him, get him over some of his issues, and then sell him again, but he's now going to stay with me."
Owner and trainer, Sammi Jo Stohler from Eastern Oregon, USA has a background in training horses before she moved onto exotic animals. She got the idea to start jumping one of her four Zebra’s, Zack, when he kept jumping the fence out of his field. Using his talents, he has easily taken to the jumps becoming quite the natural.
"He's large pony size, but he jumps very easily," said Sammi "The first time I pointed him at the jump, I put it really low. But he likes jumping, and going higher was no problem."
Sammi got her first taste of the African animal 10 years ago and now has Zack who she rides, Charlie who she drives and two others; Zorse and Zedonk. She set out to train the Zebras to prove critics wrong.
"To say something is untrainable implies that it can't learn, and we all know that if they couldn't learn, they'd all be extinct. They have to be able to learn and adapt. Obviously, the burden lies on the trainer to be able to train them," she said.
"Zebras are very intelligent. When you teach them something, you don't have to do a lot of review."
Sammi took over ownership of Zack two years ago when his owners couldn’t look after him anymore as he wasn’t very accustomed to humans. Now, with training, Zack can be groomed and ridden like any pony!
"A lot of people don't really know how to handle them, so they run into problems, and rather than trying to fix it, they give up," she said.
"Originally, I was going to work with him, get him over some of his issues, and then sell him again, but he's now going to stay with me."
posted by Fuse | 3:41 PM
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