1800s. Fancy Carriage

[dewey839]

When you hear hoofbeats, think zebras, not horses.

Comments

[laurel_hardy]

Hmmm…never heard of zebras being used as draft animals or as a creature to be ridden. So maybe you could get them hitched up and quiet long enough to get the shot, but I'd be pretty worried about actually taking this rig out into traffic. Given the mayhem when one of the carriage horses in Manhattan get spoked and that zebras haven't really been bred for this, I think a carriage ride through town with this team could be more terrifying than anything and dubious if one would make it to a destination. But they look good.

[msminlr]

My first thought was "That's extraordinary!" because zebras are notoriously un-tameable. This set must have been bottle-raised, possibly in a zoo.

[cemeteryconsort]

I've heard the same, that zebras are not used because they are so untamable. I wonder why that is considering they are basically just horses..Has anyone found the 'domestication' gene?

[msminlr]

Not that I've heard. Jared Diamond commented in GUNS, GERMS, AND STEEL that most of the large Subsaharan African land mammals have this same problem, though.

[laurel_hardy]

I think it's just a matter of selecting over generations only the most docile and cooperative animals for breeding. I saw a documentary from Soviet days where they were breeding foxes and within a couple of generations had creatures with new colors/patterns (a surprise side effect) and doglike interactions with humans. But they also speculate that it was wolves that initiated the contact with humans that eventually led to dogs, so it maybe that canines are inherently more adaptable in this way.

[sweet_kitsune]

Is this Lord Rothschild? I'd heard he had a zebra carriage similar to this.

[bitchie_poo]

if this is accurate, yes!

http://shopkins-fossick.blogspot.com/2011/03/taming-of-zebra.html

[starlite_gone]

lol that is NOT the picture I was expecting to see when I was scrolling down my flist. This is so strange to see! A bit weird to think about how it's so normal to see horses but then a zebra in the same place produces a double-take. Obviously because of domestication etc but I never thought before about zebras being anywhere near where horses are usually used...