Man amazes locals by riding zebra

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Mr Turner hopes to train Zebedee to jump

A racehorse trainer has been causing a stir in Dorset by riding a zebra down to his local pub.

Bill Turner had always wanted a zebra after being told they were incredibly hard to be broken in and ridden.

He bought Zebedee from a wildlife park in Holland and after just two-and-a-half weeks amazed locals by riding him to the Kings Arms pub in Sherborne.

Mr Turner says he hoped to train Zebedee to jump in the future before finding him a new home as a pet.

He added: "The first two or three days I had him I thought to myself 'you silly old devil, I've bitten off more than you can chew here'. We were having real problems.

When people saw me me going down the road they were stopping, jumping out saying 'I don't believe what I'm seeing' Bill Turner

"The landlord down the pub and customers reckoned it would take six months to train but after two-and-a-half weeks we did it.

"When people saw me me going down the road they were stopping, jumping out saying 'I don't believe what I'm seeing'.

"A few of the pub customers came out and saw him and quickly went back in saying 'I'll have another pint of that, it's better than I thought it was'."

Mr Turner said he had always wanted to train a zebra after being told they were almost impossible to ride.

"We have broken everything else, we've broken donkeys, ponies, race horses, carthorses, every other type of horse available, and it was just a challenge I wanted to do.

"They are hard to train as they panic very easily.

"Also, everybody that has had something to do with them before tells me they have no brain, but I am not convinced with that because some of the things we've done with him shows he has got a brain."

Mr Turner's daughter, Kristine Turner, said her father "was really impressed that it only took two weeks to break him in".

"But Zebedee won't stay here, he'll now go somewhere nice and be a pet to a family.

"He can have a nice life where he won't risk being attacked by tigers and other wild animals."