The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-11-11
LASSOING ZEBRAS,
Cowboy Methods tf Capturing the
Young to Train Them For Work.

The Government Of East AFRICA Is
much pleased with the first results
of it's efforts to tr;Ein zebras to DO
nestle service. Great pains have
been taken for two years with the ed
ucation of five spans Of these AMI
mails and they have finally been
brought to a state of perfect docilltS
and are now making a good record IN
the draught service.
1t is believed in East Africa that
the practicability Of making the re-
| bra do the work Of the horse n the
OK has been demonstrated. II II
were possible the Government would
RAPIDLY push the work of tanning ze-
bras and breaking them to harness,
but unfortunately men who have the
peculiar talent and liking for this
work are few, and so zebra tanning
goes on slowly.
A mar named 3esser. in the Ger
man service. is a sort Of genius IN
this line. He has his W ideas as
to the best way to make a useful SER
want of the zebra. and the Govern
ment lets him follow his. bent.
Besser does not agree with Mr..
Won S~chellendorf. the pioneer zebra
tanner of the colony, that the best
way to catch them is to run the AMI
mails into a corral and keep them
prisoners, gradually eliminating
those that are least promising. Bes-
ser wants nothing to do with any of
the animals. excepting those he pro-
poses to tame, and these are the
foals a few weeks old. He IS catch.
ing them with a lasso in Western
cowboy fashion, and he is the only
man in the big colony who seems to
be able to do it.
It is not easy to do. Besser has
a tough, fleet horse that served in
the calvary during the Boer wal and
has been trained to gallop at full
speed over the plains with the bride
on his neck, his direction guided by
the swerving of his masters body to
the right or left. This horse is the
zebra chaser.
It is Besser's practice to get into
the edge of some grove which herds
of zebras are likely to approach while
grazing, and from this cover he sud-
denly rushes IN horseback. The
Observation-Disclosures Zeitung, telk
ing the story, says that the moth
ers will not abandon their foals, but
collecting around them urge them on
as rapidly as possible and retreat
with them in the centre.
Now Besser's troubles begin. 1t Is
not easy to lasso one Of the young,
because they are much smaller than
any of the surrounding animals, and
to ~aggravate the situation the lords
of the herd, enraged by this attack
on it's weaker members and perhaps
emboldened by the sight of the big
horse, to whom they may inpute the
trouble without observing the
strange animal astride him, come
back to bite and kick the horse. He
naturally responds in kind, at some
peril to his rider, who, intent upon
his game, was once endorsed in this
proceeding.
Besser since that accident has
been ready to meet the emergency
with a shot or two from his revol-
yer, which scatters the males in wild
flight. Sometimes he fails to cap
ture a colt, but he is usually success
full, and has now a fine herd of young
zebras, whose training begin1 from
the day of their capture.
He says it does not take very long
to win their entire confidence by
firm out kind treatment, and the task
grew easier when he was able to turn
new animals among those whom he
had come to handle and fondle as
he might a dog. He succeeds evil
IDENTITY because he is a born animal
trainer. They learn to feed from his
hand or basket, and as their training
advances he leads them by a halter,
bits them, walks them around with
harness on their backs and finally
gives them little loads to pull. None
of his herd is yet large enough for
actual service.
Besser is not only enthusiastic over
the practicability of making the ze-
bra a work animal but he is also san
| guine that the crossing of zebras and
asses, now in the experimental stage,
will result in a work animal whose
usefulness will not be confined to
Africa.