What do you remember about Mr. Ed?

Cool that you knew him.

Les was lean, tan and tall, always a gentleman. His best friend was Audie Murphy. The two of them were great fun. It wasn't often he brought the ladies around, but they enjoyed his company when he did. From my youngest years, I'd hang around all the trainers in the neighborhood, including my father. Since Les and I both had a penchant for silence, we didn't converse much in those years, but I still learned a lot, watching and listening, figuring out what worked and why. When he asked me to assist him with both Ed and his double, Pumpkin, I was floating. I was a teen by then and had trained several of my father's ponies, plus bought horses of my own to train. But they didn't compare to Les' splendid charges. This was an opportunity everyone craved – and he picked me. He was as patient with me as he was with Ed, showing me the scripts, figuring out how to do the scenes, and much, much more. Les was generous to my friends too. One bought a wild mustang at a local auction. We trained it together, but it wasn't long before Les was involved too, helping with tricks Dor wanted Sun to know.

Ed’s beauty was a direct result of his illustrious heritage. A Saddlebred-Arabian cross, Ed was the son of Chief Tonganoxie and a grandson of The Harvester, a founding sire of The Palomino Association, whose distinctive silvery tone shimmered through his golden coat and was passed to his foals and grandfoals, including Ed. Ed was the best known grandson of The Harvester, both through his T.V. fame and his illustrious horse show career. Ed’s dam, Zetna, was an Arabian imported from Poland. Her sire was the American-born, Antez. Antez--a fine sire, show horse and race horse--was shipped to Poland by General J. M. Dickinson of Tennesse after his racing career ended. From "The Journal of The Arab Horse Society" (circa 1935 - 1938): "... [Rufus] Riddlesbarger had brought the great Antez 448 back from Poland especially to cross on Palomino mares in an effort to increase the quality and keep the golden color."

Me too, even though I could just as easily see him in person. The shows were just plain old fun with silly plots that worked hard to put him in ridiculous situations so he could exhibit his talents.