A Shield and Beast

[Cygnus]

That is better; though you can do with the image what you want!

The biggest problem is that I am not a graphic designer or artist by any stretch of the imagination, and the file was made using very basic software. These things together lead to a very pixelated image.

I suppose I was simply excusing myself, apologizing for the poor quality of the image, and wishing that I could do better!

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

That is better; though you can do with the image what you want!

The biggest problem is that I am not a graphic designer or artist by any stretch of the imagination, and the file was made using very basic software. These things together lead to a very pixelated image.

I suppose I was simply excusing myself, apologizing for the poor quality of the image, and wishing that I could do better!

If you can convert your image to a vector image and then down load that to Ted he can then trot on over to any printer and have it printed (tee-shirts, flags, what have you) any size he'd like without the problems of pixellation.

[Bugbear]

Thank you to all for producing the two different zebra and shields, as well as, writing up the blazoning.

[Mike_Oettle]

This one slipped by me, despite my having provided the original artwork for Ted.
My thanks to Cygnus for turning the zebra forcene to face the dexter (an animal facing the sinister is regarded as being coward).
I would suggest that the zebra fill a bit more of the shield than in the most recent images, and that the mound take up less of it.
And the idea of using a cactus flower for a badge sounds excellent – in fact, it would work well as a crest, instead of the zebra’s head.
As has been pointed out, adding a blossom to the shield would make it unnecessarily fussy. It would also be out of place for a zebra to share the shield with a cactus, since they are from different continents.
And there you are, Ted: your own coat of arms.
As a US citizen you are not obliged to register it or obtain a grant, but it might be worthwhile registering it with one of the private registries in your country – that way you can ensure that at least in certain circles it is acknowledged as being your property.
Regards,
Mike

[Bugbear]

This one slipped by me, despite my having provided the original artwork for Ted.
My thanks to Cygnus for turning the zebra forcene to face the dexter (an animal facing the sinister is regarded as being coward).
I would suggest that the zebra fill a bit more of the shield than in the most recent images, and that the mound take up less of it.
And the idea of using a cactus flower for a badge sounds excellent – in fact, it would work well as a crest, instead of the zebra’s head.
As has been pointed out, adding a blossom to the shield would make it unnecessarily fussy. It would also be out of place for a zebra to share the shield with a cactus, since they are from different continents.
And there you are, Ted: your own coat of arms.
As a US citizen you are not obliged to register it or obtain a grant, but it might be worthwhile registering it with one of the private registries in your country – that way you can ensure that at least in certain circles it is acknowledged as being your property.
Regards,
Mike

Thanks Mike. Perhaps a tiger aloe... which is South African and also growing in my front yard in several large rosette patches.

As to totem research... I don't mean to be a zebra without stripes, but... I've looked it up in several books, and the ancestors of wild asses and zebras that also evolved into horses did originate in North America beginning about six million years ago, and going extinct in North America around eight thousand years ago.

Basically, horses came full circle and hit the ground running, coevolved, as well as domesticated, over here in the States where their ancient ancestors originated. Zebras, for the most part, are not domesticated, so did not tag along with the Spanish; they mainly live in zoos over here. Wild Horses: A Spirit Unbroken, by Elwyn Hartley Edwards (Voyageur Press, 1995) page 8.

But, sometimes a good symbol has many layers of meaning...

[Mike_Oettle]

Hi, Ted – yes, as you say, Eohippus was a North American beast . . . but that was a long, long, long time ago.
The word zebra is of Portuguese origin, but etymologists don’t seem able to agree on how it got there. There is apparently a Spanish word that is similar (cebra), but it would seem to have been borrowed by the Portuguese from either kiKongo or Amharic (both of these languages being African).
It was originally applied to a kind of wild *** (apparently now extinct).
Attempts have been made to domesticate them. In the late 19th century the Zeederberg coaching company used a team of zebra to pull its stage coaches in parts of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek (later called the Transvaal), because horses could not stand up to the tropical diseases in the far eastern and northern parts.
My great-grandmother’s second husband, Hugh Exton, was the town photographer in Pietersburg (now called Polokwane and capital of Limpopo Province) and took the only known picture of the team in action.
The experiment did not last long, though, and other attempts to domesticate zebras have not had much success.
I am aware that zebras, giraffe, ostriches (all solely African) and elephants (both African and Indian) can be found in parts of the United States, but they certainly are not indigenous there.
But your idea of an aloe is an insightful one. Aloes (in many shapes and sizes) are common across Southern Africa, and a particularly tall variety, Aloe ferox, is used as a symbol by various institutions in this country, including the Eastern Cape Province.
Regards,
Mike

[piperdbh]

A cactus flower for a badge would be really nice, and I like the forcene zebra.
What motto will you use? "Credo in sandwicci" just somehow doesn't quite work.

[Bugbear]

Oh, that is a very interesting story about the picture, Mike.

Our, now indigenous, wild equine, is the Mustang horse, brought by the Spanish. There are some wild herds left here and there in the Southwest U.S., still. The wild *** and zebra are the closer wild relative to Eohippus, and it's *** branches, having not been domesticated. The theme is, of course, the coming of full circle from deep time, and deep ancestry to the world we now know; humans coming from Africa, of course.

We do grow the Aloe ferox here, it's usually called Cape Aloe in the nurseries.
The aloe I have is Aloe variegata, and aside from Tiger Aloe, it is also sometimes called Partridge Breast Aloe. It does have stripes, and turns somewhat orange under stress.


***

A cactus flower for a badge would be really nice, and I like the forcene zebra.
What motto will you use? "Credo in sandwicci" just somehow doesn't quite work.

* shrugs *
The zebra sleeps tonight?...

[Mike_Oettle]

Hi, Ted – not so sure that indigenous is the right word for the mustang. Feral is probably better. There are similarly “wild” horses in Australia (brumbies) and in Namibia.
The Namibian horses inhabit a desert region on the western side of the country, and are descended from a herd kept by a German settler about a century ago. They are very hardy.
It is also highly likely that the brumbies got to Australia by way of South Africa, since the First Fleet called in at Cape Town and took on Cape horses which were then used in the Botany Bay settlement.
The Cape horses were the product of importation from Europe, but they also are a hardy breed, since they have developed a measure of immunity to African horse sickness.
And during the British period at the Cape, many more horses were imported. An early governor, Lord Charles Somerset, was the founder of the Cape Jockey Club.
The Indian Army purchased a good many “Caper” horses, but then began preferring horses from New South Wales, which were called “Walers”.
Among the hardy horses found in Southern Africa today are the Lesotho ponies, which are small because of the harsh conditions in the mountains of that kingdom. Visitors to Lesotho almost invariably come across at least one lone rider or party of riders, usually male and wearing the characteristic conical Basotho hat plus a blanket over the shoulders.
With regard to zebras, there are a number of species.
The Cape mountain zebra is common in the Western and Eastern Cape, while Burchell’s zebra is found in the Kruger National Park. Hartmann’s mountain zebra is native to Namibia, and (oddly enough) has become part of the fauna of the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, at the southern end of the Cape Peninsula. Grévy’s zebra is native to northern Kenya and Ethiopia, but is an endangered species.
The legendary quagga is believed to have been a genetic variant of the Cape mountain zebra, and attempts are being made to breed it again from that stock.
While writing this note I had a look at Wikipedia and found a picture captioned: “Lord Rothschild with his famed zebra carriage (sp. Equus quagga burchellii), which he frequently drove through London.”
And of course there is a pair of zebra in the coat of arms of Botswana – I suspect your forcene zebra has been borrowed from that device.
Regards,
Mike

[Bugbear]

Thanks for the additional information, Mike, that's very interesting.

Ya, there would be controversy and fist fights among experts in calling the mustang, or better yet the wild American horses, "indigenous," however, they have adapted and evolved to the environment of the west, and are not the same as the original Spanish horses, or any other horses for that matter, though many of those genes are still in the pool. In other words, their gene pool has stored information, through adaptation for five-hundred years, about the American Southwest, it's environment, flora, and fauna, and the Southwest has, in the same way, adapted to the horse. That's good enough for me, considering the wild ancestors of the horse did originate in North America.