Jassy
Rancher
Joined: 23 Aug 2006
Posts: 2718
Location: S. of Valentine, NE
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 Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:56 am Post subject: "Beautiful Jim Key" |
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I just discovered about this amazing horse..thought I'd share his story with ya...
http://bridlepath.wordpress.com/2007/01/28/equine-prodigies/
the link shows some old photo's...
The case of Beautiful Jim Key is less well-known, although lately it has been enjoying a little bit of internet buzz. Foaled in 1889, Jim Key was a Standardbred/Arab cross stallion owned by former slave “Dr.” William Key, a self-trained veterinarian. Like Lady Wonder, Jim Key was hand-raised by humans; this early experience no doubt taught both horses to be particularly sensitive to human behaviour. From his official website: “Said to have an i.q. equivalent to a human sixth grader, Jim exploded onto the national scene in 1897 by demonstrating inexplicable abilities to read, write, spell, do mathematics, tell time, sort mail, use a cash register and a telephone, cite Bible passages, and debate politics. For the next nine years, he performed in nation-wide expositions and world’s fairs to wildly receptive crowds, smashing box office records, overcoming hurdles of prejudice and skepticism, all the while winning rapturous praise from the press and such leaders as President McKinley and Booker T. Washington.”
Beautiful Jim Key and “Dr.” William Key
Touted as “the smartest horse in the world” and said to be valued at more than one million dollars, Jim was exhibited at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis (admission price to see him: fifteen cents):
Mim Eichler Rivas has written a book about Beautiful Jim Key, revealing that the horse’s notoriety led to thousands of schoolchildren pledging to always be kind to animals, and helped boost the nascent animal welfare movement. I haven’t read the book yet, so can’t comment, nor have I been able to find out what investigations, if any, were carried out with Jim.
These cases, spanning the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, were spurred by Darwinism (which led to questions about the nature of animal intelligence) and the growing field of psychology, particularly behaviorism. Hans, Lady Wonder and Jim Key exhibited, to an exquisite degree, the innate equine ability to observe and respond to nonverbal behaviour. “Horse whisperers” have built their fortunes on exploiting this ability as if it were a new discovery, ignoring centuries of horse training tradition which say the same thing. Other animals have been taught to communicate with humans; Koko the gorilla is probably the most famous example. She has learned more than 1000 signs based on American Sign Language, and can apparently understand over 2000 words of spoken English. Humans seem to have an innate need to reach out to other species; attributing special powers to animals would seem to do them a disservice, as their natural abilities are amazing enough without embellishment.
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