Zorses and zonkeys!

[Lynnette]

I had the most bizzare dream recently, where I was sat on a bench on the roadside in a very old fashioned looking town, just contemplating the sky and the breeze and life in general, when I heard the sound of hooves and turned to see a carriage come careering round the corner and turn up the road in front of me... it was pulled by a pair of zorses (zebra-horse crosses)! Then a couple of bareback, riderless appaloosas came charging along behind them, then a couple of other ponies with riders, some shetlands, carriages, and another carriage with four zorses or zonkeys (zebra-donkey crosses!).

Until this dream, I had never even contemplated the fact that zorses, zonkeys and zebrasses even existed, but when I saw the first pair come careering round the corner, I knew exactly what they were! But then I can't think of ever having come across the subject before, or of seeing or hearing anything that could have triggered of built itself into such a dream...

Has anyone else ever found themselves having quite such a bizzare dream and it tying in with the time period of a PL?

 

[Cryscat]

Are you sure they were Zorses? Could they have been Quagga?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quagga

 

[Lynnette]

They might well have been, since they were that same sandy reddish colour, but I seem to remember the stripes being on the back end and hind legs, while your link states quaggas were stripped only at the front..??

 

[pixarfan]

Could they have been okapis?

 

[Lynnette]

No, definitely not okapi.


I wonder if anyone ever had the zorse/zonkey hybrids as part of a circus or show or something? It would surely have been a novelty in its time ... and never mind then, I can imagine it would probably be a grand novelty now! It certainly took me aback!

 

[Lady2]

What an interesting dream...Sometimes they really can surprise you! :laugh:


Being a horse owner myself, and having spent a good amount of time at horse shows/fairs, I have seen the mule/zebra & horse/zebra crosses in person...Not sure how far back the breeding goes, certainly would be worth doing more research on. :thumbsup:

 

[goplacidly]

Check out Lord Walter Rothschild 1868-1937 and his Zebra carriage at Tring Park Herefordshire England.

 

[Cryscat]

Walter Rothschild with zebra carriage


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WalterRothschildWithZebras.jpg


Lynette


Some Quagga did have more stripping than others. But overall, Quagga were more brown and had no hind end striping.


http://www.quaggaproject.org/

 

[Lynnette]

The carriage does look remarkably similar in set up to one of those in my dream, but they were definitely not zebras pulling it, they were only semi-zebra-like... seeing the modern day pictures of the quaggas does make me wonder and doubt myself now - were the stripes on the behinds, or were they in the fronts? They may well have been zeb-somethings, or they may have been quaggas - the only point against the quaggas, is that they were obviously brought to the point of extinction, so would i really have seen teams of them pulling a race of carriages?