After Zack the zebra kept jumping out of his field, his owner, Sammi Jo Stohler figured he might have a knack for having fun over fences. “I had to build an 8′ fence around the property because he kept jumping out,” she said. “He can clear 5′ without a problem; he just walks up to a fence and ends up on the other side of it. I said, ‘I bet he can do it with a rider,’ and yep, it was no problem.”
1. The picture above shows Zack jumping a fence that is 2 feet 8 inches high. He can jump 5 feet. How much higher would you raise the jump for Zack to jump 5 feet?
Zack took quickly to the fences. “He’s large pony size, but he jumps very easily. The first time I pointed him at it, I just put it really low and showed him this is what we’re doing,” said Stohler. “And he said, ‘Oh yeah, I got that.’ He likes jumping, and going higher was no problem.”
2. Zack is 50 inches tall at his withers (where his back and neck meet). Calculate his height in hands (1 hand = 4 inches).
Zack is 6 years old a Grants zebra, they have a similar lifespan to that of a horse.
3. An average lifespan for a horse is 25 to 30 years. If Zack lives to be 27, how many more years will he be alive?
Stohler grew up riding horses on a ranch in eastern Oregon. She embarked on a career of training horses and gradually expanded to other, more exotic, species.
“As I was training horses, I kept hearing, ‘You can’t train zebras, they’re untrainable.’ I said, ‘Why?’ 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,” Stohler said.
She got her first zebra about 10 years ago. “He was a dream to work with, and I’ve been hooked ever since. They’re very intelligent. When you teach them something, you don’t have to do a lot of review,” she said. “You train them something, put them away for a few months, then bring them back out, and it’s exactly as if you didn’t stop. A lot of horses need review over and over again before they’re consistent.”
Stohler has two zebras, Zack and Charlie, on her farm in Willis, Texas, as well as a zorse (a zebra-horse cross) and a zonkey (a zebra-donkey cross). She rides Zack frequently, especially on trail rides, and drives Charlie.
Zack rides western, english or bareback. He jumps, trail rides and lays down on command. Here he is going through his paces:
1. The picture above shows Zack jumping a fence that is 2 feet 8 inches high. He can jump 5 feet. How much higher would you raise the jump for Zack to jump 5 feet?
Answer: Step 1: change all measurements to inches: 2 feet 8 inches = (2 x 12) + 8 = 32 inches. 5 feet = 5 x 12 = 60 inches.
Step 2: 60 – 32 = 28 inches. The jump would have to be raised 28 inches.
2. Zack is 50 inches tall at his withers (where his back and neck meet). Calculate his height in hands (1 hand = 4 inches).
Answer: 50 ÷ 4 = 12 R 2. Zack’s height would be written as 12.2 hands high.
3. An average lifespan for a horse is 25 to 30 years. If Zack lives to be 27, how many more years will he be alive?
Answer: 27 – 6 = 21. Zack will live 21 more years.
Photos: YouTube