Trainer Bill Turner on his zebra, Zebedee
PICTURE: UnknownTurner pulls off ultimate training feat
TRAINER Bill Turner can truly be said to have earned his stripes, after crossing the equine divide and successfully breaking in and riding a zebra in just over a fortnight.
Locals could not believe their eyes when Turner, 61, took Zebedee out for thefirst time to celebrate the achievement of what had been a long-held ambition. Zebras are much less co-operative and more difficult to ride than horses, owing to their unpredictable nature and tendency to panic under stress, but this made the challenge all the more appealing for Turner, who paid £4,500 for his pride and joy from a game reserve in Holland.
"I have broken hundreds of horses over the years, and always wanted to try my hand with a zebra, but they are very hard to get hold of," he said.
"I approached Longleat a few years ago and we were going to get one of them when a mate of mine was supplying some of the meat for the lions but, unfortunately, that fell through."
His quest finally ended when the agent in Belgium to whom Turner sells cattle was enlisted to scour Europe for a suitable animal.
However, unlike the 2005 film Racing Stripes, which features an abandoned zebra who grows up believing he is a racehorse, Turner realised the 13-month-old new arrival at Sigwells Farm in Dorset would provide the biggest test of his skills.
"They say zebras are so hard to break because they haven't got any brains and they do panic very easily, but I approached him as if he were a horse," said Turner, who keeps him in a separate yard from his string.
"He had never been touched, and at first was coming at me with his front feet and biting, but I purposely never hit him and tried to treat him with complete and utter kindness. At the moment it is working.
"Two and a half weeks after getting him, I rode him down the village and they were coming out of the pub and then going back inside thinking they had had too much to drink!"
Always the dealer, the former jump jockey whose training career stretches back 30 years, has already found a buyer for Zebedee but plans to keep him for around a year to ensure he is absolutely safe to pass on.
Asked if would consider taking Zebedee out on the gallops with his two-year-olds, Turner replied: "They would be going every bloody way if they saw him, but he is very striking and pretty."
