Bamboo Harvester
horse that portrayed Mister Ed on the 1961–1966 comedy series of the same name
Bamboo Harvester (1949–1970) was the American Saddlebred/part-Arabian horse that was known for portraying Mister Ed on the 1961–1966 comedy series of the same name. Foaled in 1949, the gelding was trained by Will Rogers' protégé, Les Hilton. He was born in the Los Angeles area but some sources disagree as to whether his birthplace was in Reseda, El Monte or at Harvester Farms in Chatsworth, California.
In 1968, two years after the cancellation of Mister Ed, at the age of 19, Bamboo began to suffer from a variety of age related ailments, including kidney problems and arthritis. He was euthanized in 1970.
A second palomino horse named Pumpkin (alternatively Punkin), which had posed for still pictures used in press kits for the show and some personal appearances, survived until 1979. After Bamboo Harvester's death, the second horse was unofficially known as Mister Ed.
Pedigree
Death
By 1968, Bamboo Harvester was suffering from a variety of health problems. Controversy surrounds the story of his demise, and there are at least two separate versions of what happened, both from plausible sources which might reasonably be expected to have the correct story.
In one version, he was euthanized in 1979 with no publicity, and buried at Snodgrass Farm in Oklahoma.
The public source identifies “Bamboo Harvester” as horse that portrayed Mister Ed on the 1961–1966 comedy series of the same name. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Bamboo, Harvester and horse.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4853408. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1970, 1961 and 1966.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bamboo Harvester” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.