Photos Show That People Were Riding Zebras In The Late 19th And Early 20th Centuries

• 01

  In the year 1898, in one of the many mews just off Cromwell Road, Kensington, lived Mr. Hardy, who was a noted horserider and trainer, being one of the three men who had succeeded in riding the “French Rocking Horse”.

  
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  This was a device used by the French Cavalry. It had every possible movement of a wild horse not in the best of tempers.

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• 02

  Mr. Hardy with zebra coach in London, 1898.

  
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• 03

  Lord Walter Rothschild with his team of carriage-pulling zebras, 1895. Rothschild, of the global Rothschild banking family, owned his own zoo.

  
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• 04

  Carriage drawn by a zebra driven by Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild, founder of the Natural History Museum at Tring, now part of the Natural History Museum, London.

  
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• 05

  A zebra cart, 1890s

  
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• 06

  Mrs. Alice Hayes herself, as may be supposed, looks every inch a ‘workman’ in the saddle, 1890s.

  
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  Here, she rode a zebra at Calcutta which was broken within an hour by her husband sufficiently to be saddled and bridled.

• 07

  A German soldier is riding a zebra in Zanzibar, 1890s.

  
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• 08

  A zebra pulls a carriage in Calcutta, India, 1930.

  
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• 09

  Mrs. Martin Johnson rides a domesticated zebra named Bromar, 1923

  
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• 10

  A zebra pulls a carriage through Brxton, London, 1913

  
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  It is likely that the zebra and carriage were the property of music hall artist, Mr. Gustav-Grais, and were used to promote his shows.

  
  

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• 11

  Laffin Leslie, an 18-year-old dwarf, guides Jimmy, the “only rideable zebra in the world,” across a road in Berkshire, England, 1935.

  
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• 12

  Zebra team with man and cart in Golden Gate Park, 1925.

  
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