Eclyse, a zebra/horse hybrid foaled in Germany.

Several years ago, a uniquely-colored filly named Eclyse (pronounced “uh-KLEE-suh”) made a splash when she appeared at a German safari park.

Eclyse’s dam, Eclipse, was given a vacation in Italy where she lived in a herd of horses and zebras. One of the zebras, a stallion named Ulysses, had a special relationship with Eclipse during her stay. When the mare returned to the Zoosafari Park in Schloss Holte Stukenbrock, Germany, near the Holland border, she delivered a surprise foal – a “zorse”!

Just like the name sounds, a zorse is a hybrid zebra/horse. Like mules and hinnies, they are generally sterile and exhibit traits of both parents. In Eclyse’s case, she inherited a tobiano gene from her horse dam and zebra markings from her sire. Here’s a German news video showing Eclyse with her bay tobiano pony dam.

Eclyse's unique pinto markings on her head and neck.

Eclyse is a good example of how dominant the tobiano gene is. Any time a horse (or horse hybrid) inherits at least one tobiano gene, tobiano is always expressed and it determines where the colored patches appear.

Eclyse got her white pattern from her pony dam because zebras don’t carry the tobiano gene, and Eclyse inherited her father’s stripes on top of the bay coat color. If you look up zorse on Google, you’ll find a lot of different photos of zorses and many of them seem to retain the base coat color of their horse parent.

The short video below shows Eclyse at home at the German safari park.