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Posted by Sammi Jo on 8/17/2008, 10:05 pm, in reply to "Re: Instincts"
67.142.130.16
We bought Tatoo 21/2 years ago as an unhandled zebra. He was pretty wild and spooky at first. Jason worked with him until I moved down here, then both of us worked with him quite a bit for the first couple of months, mostly just being near him and getting him used to us. We also worked with him in the round pen and his responses were amazing. Once we gained his trust, we had it. Pretty soon, I was able to slip on a halter and after working with him for a couple of weeks in the pen with the halter, we took him out of his pen for a walk. I always removed the halter after a session, I never leave them on. He allows us to put on a blanket, brush him all over, including his tail and all the way down to his hooves. He let the vet mouth him to confirm his age. If you present him with an open trailer, he will jump right in. After we got to the point of being able to halter him easily, we haven't done very much intensive work with him. We go in and say hello to him often, just to give him a good scratch. I have found with all of our zebras that once you get to a certain point of trust and respect, maintaining that relationship is pretty easy. I can go months without haltering the other two boys and they behave no differently than if I haltered them every day. Jason's 4 year old gelding, Zip has really leveled out this year. He is much more accepting of strangers than previously. He gets pushy and rude with me sometimes, but I just need to be assertive. He cannot be chased away, no matter how hard you try or what you throw at him...such a ham.
--Sammi Jo
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