The Zebra Dun

• An early version of "Zebra Dun" entitled "Bow-Legged Ike" was printed in _Cattle Ranch to College_ by Russell Doubleday (1899). The author says "the song was first heard in Montana about 1875 from a horse wrangler named Curran." Curran "was of medium height, stoop-shouldered, and rather bow-legged from long contact with a horse's round body. He was awkward and stiff when afoot... "In the saddle ... seemingly a part of the beast he rode."
• The version Adam sings first appeared as the "Educated Feller" in _Songs of the Cowboys_ by N. Howard Thorpe (1908). Thorp says he first heard the song in 1890, by Randolph Reynolds at Carrizzozo Flats and that the song was significantly enriched and expanded during and after the Spanish American War.
• Regarding authorship of this song, Texas folklorist J. Frank Dobie, in his personal copy of John A. Lomax' _Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads_ (1910) wrote: "John Custer, trail driver, told me that while he was on the Z-Bar-L Ranch north of Big Spring in '80's a 'slim fellow wearing a little hat' and not looking anything like a cowboy came into camp, asked for a job, and was given an outlaw to ride - one of the Z-L horses. 'Rode him to a fare-you-well.' Then the song started."
• John A. Lomax wrote that the "Zebra Dun" song was, "...said to be composed by Negro Jake working for Evans and Means, Valentine, Texas." In 1938, in the enlarged "Cowboy Songs and Frontier Ballads," Jake is identified as the camp cook for the ranch.
• Dane Cooledge, in an article called "Cowboy Songs," published in Sunset Magazine, XXIX (Nov. 1912) ascribes authorship of "Zebra Dun" to Sam Roberts.
• William Croft Barnes, veteran rancher, described a zebra dun horse as "an animal generally of a claybank or buckskin shade, with dark zebra stripes across his withers and around both forelegs." He also said that many cowboys believed that the mother of a zebra dun had mule blood in her system.

[rebeccatalley]

I found this entirely years late. My family herded cattle in the high country and my dad sang this song as you rode on the trail. Thank you