The Banker and His Zebra **Revised**

Kent is a banker. He also owned a zebra.

He didn’t get saddled with the zebra when some zoo went bankrupt.  He actually bought the critter.  I think the idea was that he would drive it in some of the community day parades.

My daughter, who has trained her own horse to cart and saddle, told me he would never succeed. Zebra’s just aren’t trainable, she said.

The daughter was wrong.

Kent partnered with David Skipworth, a master trainer who set up shop in the area a few years ago. David is what many folks would call a horse whisperer. He’s studied the body language and sounds made by lead horses in the wild and uses that knowledge in his training. He doesn’t “break” horses, he gentles them, quickly and effectively.

Skipworth had the chance to make similar studies of zebras in the wild and he’s learned to “zebra whisper” as well. It turns out that zebras can be trained, but they have to be trained differently than horses.

So, Kent’s zebra, Zimba, did learn to pull a cart. Here is picture of the two of them together.

Kent and Zimba

Unfortunately, you won’t be able to see Zimba in the Chief Wapello Days parade July 18th. As you’ll see in Kent’s comment, Zimba has been sold and now earns his living helping people learn how to teach autistic children.