300 BREAKING FOR SPECIAL WORK. 



the greatest difficulty in subduing zebras is their extreme 

 cunning in refusing, under ordinary circumstances, to 

 exhaust themselves by " playing up," which horses do in a 

 way that would make a zebra smile. I found it expedient 

 with this powerful animal to make her lie down until she 

 arose submissive and quiet to be ridden without any 

 trouble. The younger zebra evinced very little desire to 

 assert her authority. Jess, however, was far less trouble 

 to break in than a Mountain zebra stallion which I made 

 quiet for my wife to ride in Calcutta, probably because 

 my Calcutta pupil had only been in captivity a short 

 time. 



After the mares were reduced to obedience I was asked 

 to handle a Grevy zebra stallion, which gave me some 

 trouble in his efforts to bite and kick. He finally allowed 

 himself to be mounted, and made no attempt to bite my 

 hand when I placed it in his mouth. I was very sorry to 

 hear that this zebra died about four days after his breaking 

 lesson. As I knew nothing about this unfortunate occur- 

 rence, I cannot do better than give the following extract 

 from a letter I received from Mr. Pocock, who is the 

 Superintendent of the Zoological Society's Gardens : 

 " I was very much astonished to hear on Sunday morning 

 that our zebra stallion was down, because he seemed all 

 right on the Thursday and Friday following the breaking, 

 and it was not till Saturday that signs of weakness began 

 to show themselves in the fore-quarters, as was testified by 

 his toppling and dropping momentarily on to his knees. 

 He was not handled at all after the Wednesday when you 

 broke him. To what extent the death was attributable 

 to the breaking, if indeed it was at all connected with it, 

 it is quite impossible to say. The post mortem examination 

 revealed no sign of any internal injury, though the organs 

 were carefully examined. However, the comparative 



