Zebra Ranching: Raising Horses With A Different Stripe

Zebra Ranching: Raising Horses With A Different Stripe LIVESTOCK Miscellaneous 25-4-44 Driving through the range and pasture regions of northeastern Colorado, you're likely to do a double-take if you pass by Monopoly Ranch near Eaton, which is owned by Dee Neiman and his wife Cheri Kula. Like most ranchers in the area, they have their share of horses. But occupying some of the irrigated pastures on their spread are equines of a different stripe. Since 1999, the couple has been raising zebras. They got their start with four mares and a stallion bought from a Missouri breeder. To avoid excessive inbreeding, they have since bought another stallion and mare from a breeder in Tennessee. Monopoly Ranch is now home to 12 purebred Grant's Zebras - eight mares, two foals and two studs. Their plan is to sell zebra stallion colts, while keeping the fillies to build a herd of 20 or more brood mares. "There are zebra owners all over the U.S., mostly with just one animal or a smaller herd," Cheri says. Zebras normally have an 11-month gestation period, like horses, ponies and donkeys. However, Kula says they can go as long as 13 months and zebra mares are very good at hiding the stage of their pregnancy, so it's difficult to predict when a foal will arrive. Zebras can be crossbred with other equine species. The hybrid offspring, called "zorses", "zonies" or "z-donks", are sterile. Neiman and Kula say that while zebras can be managed much like horses, there are some differences in temperament. "Horses have been bred for centuries to be handled by humans. Zebras are wild. They don't take well to being handled and will fight a chute and even pens," Kula says. When threatened, zebras bite and kick to protect themselves and their offspring. "Trying to work them through a chute or catch them in a pen is stressful on people and animals, so we don't do it," Kula adds. Keeping them in fenced pastures is another challenge, but the zebras have learned to respect electric fence wire with five stands of hot wire. While they lost one of their original mares to an unknown disease, Kula says zebras hardly ever get sick. If they do need to give them medication, though, they have to do it in their feed, since getting close enough to use a syringe is almost an impossibility. They've found that, like horses, zebras do better when they're dewormed so they use a dewormer in their feed. They've found they can produce tame foals by taking them off the mothers at about 10 days of age and hand feeding them with bottles and milk replacer. The couple says there are four markets for zebras and zebra hybrids: other breeders, zoos (including petting zoos), novelty pet owners, and movies. Pet owners and movie production companies may pay $10,000 or more for a hand-raised foal, while untamed adult mares, depending on age and disposition, go for $5,000 to $7,500. Average stallions are worth from $2,500 to $3,500 each. Prices for zebra hybrids vary, depending on traits, such as coloring, amount and pattern of striping and disposition. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Dee Neiman and Cheri Kula, Monopoly Ranch, 23757 WCR 70, Eaton, Colo. 80615 (ph 970 353-5556).

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