Africa – The true story of Zulu: an African stallion

The tropical cyclone Leon-Eline violently hit the coasts of Mozambique on February 2000 and the Limpopo River flooded violently in a matter of 48 hours, exceeding its normal level by 11 meters. In the Mashatu Private Reserve in Botswana , crossed by the Limpopo River, the situation was tragic. Discover now all our trips, tours, holidays and horse trekking in Botswana. At the base camp of departure of the horse safaris, Ruff, the camp manager at the time, somehow managed to open the paddocks and make the horses flee so that they could save themselves by seeking shelter in the hills. Click on the link to view our horse safari in the Limpopo Valley. In the following weeks, the surviving horses were caught up… except Zulu. The search went on for some time but the hope was lost at some point, but the men of the surrounding villages kept talking about a giant black zebra without stripes that had been seen several times in the herd.

In fact, Zulu had not only survived, but had learned to survive in the savannah , and it learnt the importance of the herd. Initially it approached with submission, but then it became the leader of the pack of a fair number of females and young horses that he led for several years until the moment of its recapture. The story of the fantastic horse Zulu is still told today among the ranks of the guides of the Mashatu Reserve, who died a couple of years ago because of a horse fever; and its story was put on paper by David Bristow and his book “Running Wild” to be remembered.