# What's the difference between zebras and horses? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 5, 2003, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330 "2003-03-05T20:28:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velocity2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/9de0a6/32.png) [@Velocity2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity2k)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330/1 "2003-03-05T20:28:49Z")
What’s the big difference between zebras and horses. To me they look exactly alike (aside from there color schemes), but I’ve heard that they are as different from each other as humans are from chimpanzees. Is this true? Also, while we’re on the subject, why is it that we never see people riding zebras like they do horses; are zebras untameable? These questions have been bugging me for dacades. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330/2 "2003-03-05T20:38:17Z")
Check out an essay by Stephen Jay Gould, the paleontolgist. He has a brilliant articel about in in one of his books. If you want, I’ll search through my collection, and get you the title, but right now i’m kind of drive-by posting. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330/3 "2003-03-05T20:42:20Z")
Welcome to the SDMB. [Here](http://www.equiworld.net/en/breeds/zebra/) is a web site that should answer most of your questions. Quote The zebra belongs to the same family as the horses and ponies. I can’t remember the breakdown between family, species, genus, ect. but maybe someone will explain that to you. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330/4 "2003-03-05T20:42:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Velocity2k \* > \*\*What’s the big difference between zebras and horses. To me they look exactly alike (aside from there color schemes), but I’ve heard that they are as different from each other as humans are from chimpanzees. Is this true? \*\* No, that’s not true at all. Zebras and horses belong to the same genus (_Equus_) and are so closely related that they are capable of interbreeding. ---
**Author:** ![Neurotik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/91b2a8/32.png) [@Neurotik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neurotik)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330/5 "2003-03-05T20:44:27Z")
Very few things are untameable, it’s just that zebras are much more untameable than horses. And they have a nasty disposition and a love of biting people that come near them to boot. If you put enough effort into it, I’m sure you could tame a zebra but I don’t think it would be worth it. The thought of riding one probably never even occurred to the African natives due to the nasty disposition of our striped friends. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330/6 "2003-03-05T20:47:49Z")
BTW, the essay is “What, If Anything, Is a Zebra” in the “Hen’s Teeth” collection. ---
**Author:** ![Will\_Repair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a698b9/32.png) [@Will\_Repair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Will_Repair)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330/7 "2003-03-05T20:53:32Z")
[Zebra Home Page](http://www.imh.org/imh/bw/zebra.html) tells the difference between types of zebras. [This site](http://www.omne-vivum.com/b/3552.htm) gives the various genus/species for equus (horse) with links to Google searches. Scroll down [url=http://www.geocities.com/poitouthor/welcome.html] for information on riding and breeding zebras. One short explanation I saw said this, “You’ve got Zebra and you’ve got Horses. Equus zebra is the Mountain zebra and Equus burchelli is the common African or Plains zebra, they both have wide stripes. Grevy’s zebra, with thin strips, is Equus grevy. And the modern horse is Equus caballus. What is it about horses that humans can take them and mould the horse’s personality? Riding, jumping, pulling stuff. Nobody does any of that with any of the zebras. And I can’t believe it’s from a lack of trying, either… After all, humans have bred hundreds of different breeds of horses, including several different color breeds. Like the Paint and Appaloosa. Humans are delighted with color. Why wouldn’t we want to ride someone as flashy as a zebra? But you don’t see anyone riding zebras… because they are wild. Not domesticated.” By the way, welcome to Straight Dope Message Board. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330/8 "2003-03-05T21:02:46Z")
A modern horse is _Equus caballus_, member of family Equidae in order Perissodactyla (which also includes rhinos and tapirs). There is also Przewalski’s horse, which is either Equus caballus przewalski (which would make it a subspecies of the modern horse species) or Equus ferus przewalski or Equus przewalski (therefore constituting a separate species). _Equus_ is the only extant genus in this order. There are three species of zebras: [ul][li]Equus zebra, the mountain zebra[/li][li]Equus burchelli, the plains zebra[/li][li]Equus grevyi, Grevy’s zebra[/li][/ul] [Equus quagga](http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/mesaxonia/quagga.html) is now extinct. There are three species of ass, also in Equus: [ul][li]Equus hemionus, the Asiatic wild ass[/li][li]Equus asinus, the African wild ass (and also modern donkeys and burros)[/li][li]Equus kiang, the Kiang[/li][/ul] Equus africus is considered to be synonymous with Equus asinus. Equus onager, the Onager, is now considered a subspecies of Equus hemionus. [This site](http://biobulletin.amnh.org/A/1/3/) discusses the rarity of these species in the wild. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330/9 "2003-03-05T21:11:17Z")
Jared Diamond discusses attempts to domesticate zebras at some length in _Guns, Germs, and Steel_. As he puts it, “the eight species of wild equids vary greatly in disposition, even though all eight are genetically so close to each other that they will interbreed and produce healthy (though usually sterile) offspring”. And all four species of zebra are “irascible”, “impossibly dangerous as they grow older”, impossible to lasso, and bite a lot. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330/10 "2003-03-05T21:20:31Z")
I suspect the bottom line question here is: if you had some sort of polarized lenses so that you couldn’t see the stripes on the zebras, could you tell by looking whether a particular critter was a zebra or a horse. None of the websites shown so far address that directly, although I was told by a zoologist that yes, you could, easily. He didn’t tell me how. ---
**Author:** ![Wintermute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@Wintermute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wintermute)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330/11 "2003-03-05T21:42:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by C K Dexter Haven \* > \*\*I suspect the bottom line question here is: if you had some sort of polarized lenses so that you couldn’t see the stripes on the zebras, could you tell by looking whether a particular critter was a zebra or a horse. > > None of the websites shown so far address that directly, although I was told by a zoologist that yes, you could, easily. He didn’t tell me how. \*\* I am not a zoologist, but I am an equiphile and have owned horses in the past. I can tell the difference between a zebra and a horse very easily, simply by looking at them. You couldn’t, for example, paint stripes on a horse and tell me it was a zebra (and various TV shows have tried), or Photoshop out the stripes on a zebra and tell me it was a horse. For example, the angles of shoulder and hip are different, the way the neck meets the back is different, but the simplest way to tell at a glance is to look at the ears and tail. A zebra has large ears with rounded tips. A horse has smaller, pointed ears. The zebra’s tail is ropy, with a tuft on the end of it, where a horse’s tail looks like long strands of hair. Now, if you painted stripes on a large donkey, that would look more like a zebra. Not the same, but closer. I know this doesn’t really answer the OP, but there are people far more qualified than I to explain the physiological differences. I’m just saying you couldn’t fool anyone who knew anything about horses with just a color change. ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330/12 "2003-03-05T22:10:49Z")
[Mitochondrial DNA evidence](http://mbe.library.arizona.edu/data/1986/0306/5geor.pdf) (link goes to .pdf document) indicates that the various _Equus_ species diverged from a common ancestor ~3.9 million years ago. The common ancestor to the zebra clade (which includes _E. burchelli_, _E. grevyi_, and _E. zebra_ [the quagga is considered to be a variant of _E. burchelli_ - its mDNA differs from _E. burchelli_ by but one base pair]) looks to have appeared at about 2.8 mya. The domestic horse stock, then, appears to be only slightly older than the zebra, so differences are likely to be slight. I would suspect that morphological differences between horses and zebras might be spelled out a bit more in D. K. Bennett’s 1980 paper: Bennett, D. K. 1980. Stripes do not a zebra make, Part I: A cladistic analysis of _Equus_. Syst. Zool. 29 (3): 272-287. I haven’t been able to find an online copy of it, though. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2003, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330/13 "2003-03-05T23:00:00Z")
Concur with **Wintermute** ; zebras are a lot more like asses in build than ponies even the mane is like that of an ass; short wiry tufts. ---
**Author:** ![Road\_Rash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Road\_Rash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Road_Rash)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330/14 "2003-03-06T01:09:21Z")
OK, I’m getting pissed. Not at you guys, but at Snopes. They must have the same crap search engine that some sites have that don’t let you use words under three letters (I wonder what other sites do that?). Anyway, Mr. Ed, from the 60’s TV show was a zebra. Apparantly, it was trained to do the right things on command. Zebras are smaller than the typical domestic horse. The man who played Wilbur was only 5’4", and they made the stable set smaller. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330/15 "2003-03-06T01:12:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Road Rash \* > Anyway, Mr. Ed, from the 60’s TV show was a zebra. Apparantly, it was trained to do the right things on command. I don’t know what Snopes would want to tell you, but [this is _not_ a zebra](http://www.equinenet.org/heroes/mred.html). ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330/16 "2003-03-06T01:16:38Z")
Mr. Ed was a palomino gelding named “Bamboo Forester”. He was _not_ a zebra. - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330/17 "2003-03-06T01:20:20Z")
Gah! Now that damn theme song is running through my head double-time. [shaking fist]Curse you, **Road Rash**!!![/shaking fist] 😉 - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330/18 "2003-03-06T01:22:22Z")
Err…Bamboo Harvester, not forester - **everton’s** link has it. - Tamerlane ---
**Author:** ![Alias](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@Alias](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alias)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330/19 "2003-03-06T01:38:03Z")
I’ve read that Mr. Ed thing too! Where did that start? [This](http://www.besmark.com/wwwboard/messages/12881.html) website claims that Mr. Ed was a zebra on the show (for the first few episodes), and a horse in publicity stills. That doesn’t make much sense, but it’s what they claim. It also says (see below) that snopes says Mr. Ed _wasn’t_ a zebra, when in fact they do. > [@](#): > > Despite what [snopes.com](http://snopes.com) claims to be an ‘urban legend’ the truth is that in the first three episodes, Mr. Ed was a Zebra. Apparently (according to early TV technicians and engineers) black and white stripes would not scan properly and came out as a neutral tone. This problem was later corrected when inmates in prisons were able to walk out past tv surveillance cameras in their striped suits. > > Publicity photos in color were shot with a real palomino, and when a suitably trained horse was found, a real horse was used. > > Despite the [snopes.com](http://snopes.com) claim that this is an ‘urban legend’, the actors and technicians who worked on the TV show have confirmed that for the first three episodes, thanks to a technical fluke, a zebra was used for Mr. Ed. ---
**Author:** ![Road\_Rash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Road\_Rash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Road_Rash)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2003, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330/20 "2003-03-06T01:41:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tamerlane \* > \*\*Mr. Ed was a palomino gelding named “Bamboo Forester”. He was _not_ a zebra. > > - Tamerlane \*\* You may be correct. However, I am still looking for that site that said he was a zebra. Maybe it was another urban legend site. That site may be totally full of sh-t. But I will link it when (if) I find it again. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-difference-between-zebras-and-horses/159330.md?page=2)