ful Jim Key perform at an exhibition in Tennessee. He declared that “this is the most astonishing and entertaining exhibition that I have ever witnessed.” The President also commented that it was an example of what “kindness and patience” could accomplish. Beautiful Jim Key was famous for reading, writing, making change, citing Bible passages, and doing arithmetic with numbers under 30. His trainer Dr. William Key was a former slave and a self-trained veterinarian. Dr. Key emphasized that he only used patience and kindness in teaching his horse, and never a whip. ome of you will already know the story If you want to know the rest of the story of Beautiful Jim Key, but if you don’t, I about this horse you should read, Beautiful will fill you in a little. Beautiful Jim Key Jim Key, The Lost History Of The World’s Smartand his trainer Dr. William Key were famous est Horse, by Mim Eicler Rivas. for touring the country around the turn of Now I have trained several horses in my the last century. time and known lots of horse trainers, but This horse and his trainer were among I have never seen one like Beautiful Jim Key. the most popular attractions at the 1904 However, I do remember one particular World’s Fair in St. Louis, Missouri. The horse summer day at a racehorse barn in Kenand his trainer toured the United States in tucky. It seems that it was probably July as a special railroad car to promote the we were in Kentucky shoeing some highhumane treatment of animals. They per- end yearlings for an upcoming sale. At that formed in arenas in large cities and even at time all Thoroughbred yearlings were shod New York City’s Madison Square Garden. with training plates for sale day. President William McKinley saw BeautiSome of the big racehorse breeding VIEW FROM THE BACKSIDE by Barry Denton
Do Horses Read?
S
farms would consign up to 150 horses for one of these sales, so there was lots of extra shoeing going on at this time. You have to realize that Kentucky has tremendous humidity that time of the year. I can remember starting at 4:00 a.m. in the dark to help beat the heat. I would take four fresh shirts with me for my typical shoeing day. Normally after about two hours of shoeing your shirt would be so wet that you could wring it out with your hands. Many days it took every ounce of your self-control not to get after these yearlings too much. Consider that both of you are too hot, the flies are bad, and most yearlings are not that well broke with their feet yet. On top of that many of you don’t realize that the majority of these long yearlings are
“
I guess Jim got exasperated and
went and sat in the cab of his truck for a few minutes.
It seemed like Jim was in his cab a long time.
16 hands tall and lightning quick. I cannot tell you how many times a yearling would kick the cap off my head or the tools out of my hand when I was working with a front foot in the air. Under these circumstances you need to remain cool and composed. This particular race barn I was in happened to be about 150 ft. long with a 16-foot aisle and stalls on both sides. I had my truck backed in to one end of it. My
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