Not so. Mr. Ed was an American Saddlebred, color bred palomino. So was Robert E. Lee's "Traveler" (though he was grey). So is Iman, my horse who is color bred black. Snopes has this wrong. I mean, look at him. That isn't a zebra! They look much more "ass-like" (no giggling), have stiff manes that stand up like brushes, not long, flaxen manes.
American Saddlebred.
Nah, Ed was indeed a horsey. This is a new-fangled Hollywood/TV myth trotted out to test those on the internet and their willingness to “believe” if enough factoids were put up. Snopes actually de-bunks this little tale in the post (if you look up top, it's actually under “Lost Legends”, click on it to see what that means).
He was indeed a Palomino (named “Bamboo Harvester”) and NOT a Grevys Zebra as noted in the “Lost Urban Legends” page. The physics issue cited in the Snopes spoof post is based in some fact as older cameras did have some difficulty with closely vareigated alternating black and white stripes on occasion, but the idea that the wide swaths of color on a zebra would fool “dumb” cameras into seeing it as solid is a hoax.
A cameraman friend of mine hipped me to this tale a couple of weeks ago as this started making the rounds in H'wood circles.
“Ed” himself checked out of this mortal coil in the early seventies after a long period of infirmity.
No Zebra, that Ed. But he was hung like a horse...even though he was a gelding.
P.S. The show is something of a Hollywood legend for another reason, being the first show to debut as a syndicated program (minus a “big three” network's backing) and then jump to a network—CBS. It's still actually a very rare occurence. (The old “Adventures of Superman” series in the 50's kind of did it, but networks weren't then what we'd consider them by the early 60's of “Ed's” time)
Have I been punkd by Snopes?
hmmm.... this bears further investigation...
Did snopes just punk themselves? This seems all too confusing, too much, wait for it, horsing around.
/horse play
Hubris:
You haven't spent much time around horses, have you?
HS got punked... hee hee.
but at least it is nice to see him blogging again!
I have spent time with horses... just aint never spent time round no zebra!
The story "started making the rounds" recently? Weird. It's been up there for years.
and a great lesson delivered in the bargain.
extra trivia points for anyone who can deliver the goods on how they got the horse to move its lips. . .
it's delicious in its simplicity.
“The story "started making the rounds" recently? Weird. It's been up there for years.”
The “myth” may have been around about Zebras an all that, but in the last two months or so this thing has been pushed by a few websites linking to Snopes “tale” and giving it new “life”.
Minstrel Boy:
They allegedly used peanut butter smeared inside Ed (Bamboo's) inner lip, which he would try to remove by licking and stretching his lips.
I have also heard that a nylon patch was used in the same area because he could eventually lick away the PB and they'd have to stop filming to replace it, thus wasting film.
And kinda creepily, it is clear in some instances that wires were indeed used to pull his lips apart, via piercings and clear, low-gauge fishing line. “Bamboo” was such a well-mannered and easy-going horse that this wasn't much of an issue for him. Still, it seems kinda inhumane.
Why I know shit like this I don't know. TV show history has always fascinated me. I can tell you the play poster in the little frame behind Rob Petrie's desk on The Dick Van Dyke Show is “The Dairy Maids”, or that The Stevens' family's address on Bewitched is 1164 Morning Glory Circle, or the succession of Pontiac cars Major Nelson drove on I Dream of Jeannie (The badass 66' GTO he had in season one was the best one), or all about Joe Mannix's custom Olds Toronado convertible from Mannix (not a production car at all).
I'm silly that way.
But where I put my new reading glasses I need to see what I'm typing here without sitting way far away like Victor Borge doing a schtick...I have no Goddamned clue. 
853-OKG
It's also kind of a dead giveaway that when you click the button on the Snopes page that's supposed to show you a zebra and Mr. Ed in black-and-white, the b-and-w comparison photos are obviously both the same photo of Mr. Ed ...
Sorry, Hubris, I just couldn't resist. Looks like this time, Snopes was your Nemesis.
LM:
I had a model of the Mannix car, once upon a time, and yep, that Olds Tornado was one sweet set of wheels. God help me, but I can still remember the musical theme for that show, too.
prof fate:
“God help me, but I can still remember the musical theme for that show, too.”
I'm working up a post on the GREAT Lalo Schifrin, who wrote that spectacular theme song (I have an original vinyl of Schifrin's score for the show), Mission: Impossible, Bullitt and so many others. He's a genius!
Whattya want... it's monday morning...
Stolen from the National Lampoon, some thirty-odd years ago:
"A horse is a horse
Of course, of course
And no one can have sexual intercourse with a horse, of course
That is of course
Unless the horse
Is the famous Mister Ed!"
I got a whipping for repeating that aloud when I was much younger.
For shame..
A zebra is smaller for one thing, and has different shaped ears. And don't tell me you never saw stripes on TV until you got color, because that's just silly.
You guys are all that _and_ a bag of Party Mix.
...By Grabthar's Hammer... One of the top ten funniest movies I have EVER seen. Never could figger out why it wasn't more popular, then it dawned on me - the public, for the most part, doesn't DO snark...
hey HS dont' beleive every thing you read. honestly...the ygot you with the MR ed. story...tahts sad man, just sad 
Obligatory XKCD reference:
http://xkcd.com/250/
i was thinking of the peanut butter story LM. one of my back lot buddies was a wrangler. wires? ouch. stuff like that requires far too much forebearance from a large, hooved critter for me to try.
Neigh, neigh, Hubris.
Mr. Ed--Mr. Ngorogogo; it's all the same...who cares?
In fact, since zebras can't be broke to saddle or plow, maybe the footstamp is Transvaal for:
"You can go shit in your hat, you wanna-be Marlon perkins. No union-scale carrot plan, and you get LOUD equine farts and road apples in the middle of every scene."
lol pwnage
's-OK, there's enough punk 4 all
of course. of course!
People... sigh... click on "more information" at the bottom of that Snopes article. That, and every other article in the "Repository of Lost Legends" section, is a joke.
The goal was for them to see how easily people rely on other people doing the fact checking for them.
Some of them could have fooled me, but you guys really bought the Zebra bit? Oh lord...
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