Lady Wonder: The Super-Intelligent Horse
Lady Wonder with her owner, Claudia Fonda. Photo:Horse and Man
Lady Wonder was an exceptionally talented horse. She learned how to use a system of blocks to communicate by spelling out words. She also even seemed to know things that she, or even her owners, couldn’t possibly know.
The Story of the Magnificent Lady Wonder
A poster advertising the services of Lady Wonder
During the early 1920s, Claudia Fonda of Richmond, Virginia, began to observe peculiar behavior from her horse, Lady Wonder. The horse would frequently come to her unprompted, almost as if she could communicate with Fonda telepathically and knew she was seeking her.
Convinced that there was something special about Lady Wonder, Fonda proceeded to instruct Lady to manipulate children's blocks with her nose, with the aim of forming letters and numbers.
Over time, Fonda even created a device resembling a piano with two rows of keys. When Lady nudged a lever with her snout, a tin card bearing a number or letter would emerge, allowing her to solve mathematical equations and spell words. This was the starting point for a phenomenon, as Lady wasn't simply intelligent, but also believed to have psychic abilities.
Around 150,000 people ended up seeking guidance from Lady Wonder over the years, and they'd pay a dollar each to ask her three questions.
She had a lot of successes under her belt, like telling married ladies what their maiden names were, figuring out the sex of babies before they were born, predicting when tractors would show up, knowing the date on a hidden coin, finding oil, and even calling the results of elections, horse races, ball games, and boxing matches. Her most famous win was predicting Gene Tunney's victory over Jack Dempsey for the heavyweight championship back in 1927.
It wasn't until more than 20 years later that Lady Wonder became famous for her most remarkable achievement. In 1952, when a boy from Massachusetts went missing, Lady was called upon as a last resort to help find him.
When asked where the boy was, Lady spelled out "Pittsfield Water Wheel", although no such place existed. Despite the initial confusion, authorities eventually realized that the letters may have been intended to spell "Field and Wilde Water Pit", which was a deserted quarry located nearby. They decided to search there and tragically discovered the boy's body.
Tests on Lady Wonder’s Abilities
The piano-like system used by Lady Wonder to communicate.
Lady Wonder's accuracy with her predictions was far from perfect, and she had her share of both believers and skeptics.
After examining the horse, professional horse trainer Edward Staib concluded that the results were "not conclusive." On the other hand, psychologist Thomas L. Garrett believed that Lady Wonder was not using any trickery to achieve her results.
A New Jersey professor named John Scarne believed that Lady's owner, Claudia Fonda, was giving her cues. Magician Milbourne Christopher also shared this view and determined that Lady Wonder was very well-trained, but not actually telepathic or clairvoyant.
Once news about Lady Wonder's accurate boxing prediction got out, a group of researchers from Duke University, led by Dr. J.B. Rhine, went to visit the farm where Lady lived.
They wanted to test Lady's abilities, so Rhine devised a simple experiment in which he wrote words on pieces of paper and asked Lady to spell them out without being able to see them. Amazingly, Lady managed to spell out most of the words correctly, even longer ones like "Mesopotamia" and "Carolina."
Some people just couldn't figure out what to think about Lady Wonder. One researcher, Dr. Gayle, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that he had no clue how Lady managed to give the right answers to their questions. He was certain that there was no deliberate deception going on, but he couldn't bring himself to believe in the idea of mind-reading. He summed up his confusion by saying, "I don't know what the answer to this puzzle is!"
Lady Wonder’s headstone.
Lady Wonder passed away in 1957, followed just two years later by her beloved owner. She is buried in the Pet Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.
Astonishing Legends have done an amazing job of covering the Lady Wonder story in depth.
Do you think Lady Wonder was psychic or just a very clever horse? Let us know in the comments.
If you enjoyed learning about Lady Wonder you might also be interested in the story of Oliver the Humanzee or the mysterious black ocean goo.
Polish woman Katarzyna Zowada was tortured then skinned alive in 1998 by Robert Janczewski. He then fashioned her skin into a body suit and wore it.
The true story of Barbora Skrlová is almost stranger than fiction. When she was 33 years old Barbora convinced a family that she was a young child and got them to adopt her.
Whispers have circulated online about a town called Doveland in Wisconsin that suddenly disappeared. Is this just another internet hoax or is there something substantial behind the mystery?
Johnny Frank Garret was executed for a crime he claimed he didn’t commit. Within a few years of his death 14 people who had played a part in his conviction were dead. Was this a result of the curse of Johnny Frank Garret?
Henry McCabe, a 31 year old father of two, went missing and was later found dead after sending a strange voicemail to his wife.
Langville, Montana was supposedly a real town in Montana that disappeared at some point before the 2000’s. While all evidence of the town has been wiped from existence some claim the residents were mysteriously “turned inside out” and a cover up has taken place to avoid panic.
In 1996 and 1997 a man named Mike Marcum appeared on Coast to Coast Radio, to talk about his experiments with time travel. A few months later someone he had disappeared and someone called in to Art’s show with a story about a man who was found dead on a California beach in the 1930’s that matched Marcum’s description. Could this be the first documented case of time travel?
The Schooner Jenny was missing for 20 years before the ship was found with the crew frozen solid, standing at attention on the main deck.
Over the last decade, pessimism about the future of humanity seems to have ramped up, particularly in online spaces. Could it be that we instinctively know things are about to change drastically?
The Illuminati card game has become infamous for its uncanny predictions that seem to have come true.
American Mother Riss White has taken to TikTok to tell of how her daughter seems to remember a previous life where she died in the Twin Towers.
The SS Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior in 1975 during a storm, resulting in the loss of all 29 crew members. The wreck, discovered at a depth of 530 feet, has yielded minimal recovery of bodies, with only one crew member ever found.
Strange, undecipherable ads appeared in the Daily Wildcat Newspaper every year on the first of may. Several theories exist concerning the origin of the ads but their purpose is yet to be understood.
In London, a woman without any previous mental health issues heard voices in her head while reading at home. The voices reassured her, saying not to be afraid and expressing a desire to help. Worried about her sanity, she sought medical assistance. A psychiatrist, Mr. Ikechukwu Azuonye, documented her case in the British Medical Journal.
Many people who have used the drug DMT report seeing Machine Elves during their trips. Could these creatures be real and, if not, why do so many report seeing the same hallucination?
The 'Little Red Man of Destiny' gained widespread recognition as a bringer of misfortune and calamity throughout France, making appearances to some of the country's most prominent figures for over 260 years.
A newspaper article from 1936 reported that a dying man, after seeing himself in a hand mirror, somehow caused it to be fused with the table it was placed on. No one was able to lift the mirror after the man’s death until it was removed violently with an ice pick.
Katherine Hobbs was convinced she wouldn’t live to 16 years old. She had several premonitions throughout her life that led her to believe she would die young. Katherine lived to be 16 years, three months and three days old.
Slime Mold is a strange single celled organism that has baffled scientists for decades. It can solve mazes, communicate with other slime molds and repair itself in minutes.
In 1936 a teenage girl witnessed a man using a jetpack, flying in the sky above her. Was this event extraterrestrial, a time slip or evidence of secret military technology?
Before the police went to Chris Benoit's house and found him and his family dead, someone made changes to the Wikipedia page about him. These changes were made anonymously and talked about the death of his wife, Nancy Benoit.
On May 13, 1848, a strong earthquake struck Chantibun in eastern Siam (now Thailand). Strangely, human-like hairs emerged from the ground in various locations during the quake, including bazaars, roads, fields, and even solid areas.
The Eltanin Antenna is a strange antenna like structure spotted on the ocean floor at a depth of 12,808 ft by a research ship in 1964. Some believe it may be an extraterrestrial artifact.
The Gate of the Gods is an ancient structure in Peru with mysterious origins. No one knows who built it or why.
A four-mile stretch of Missouri-Pacific railroad is home to a strange ball of light that has been sighted hundreds, if not thousands of times. What is not known is what the Gurdon Light is and what causes it.
A caulbearer is a baby born with a “veil” covering its face made from an unbroken amniotic sac. It is said that a child born this way will grow up to have unique paranormal protections or even psychic abilities.
On the 25th November 1972 Captain John Gray returned to his bunk aboard the SS Great Britain complaining of stomach pain. He was never seen again.
Nestled within the breathtaking landscapes of Alaska lies a mysterious and foreboding place known as the Alaska Triangle, where people and planes vanish without a trace, and unexplainable phenomena abound.
Soldiers stationed at OP Rock have witnessed bizarre occurrences: eerie lights, chilling static on the radio, fluctuating temperatures, and haunting whispers in the night, accompanied by an unexplained stench of death.
In 1775, a ghost ship named Octavius was discovered stranded off the coast of Greenland, with the frozen remains of all 28 crew members found below deck.
The Hathor Temple is an ancient Egyptian temple located within the Dendera Temple complex in Egypt. Strangely, some of the temples solid granite stairs appear to have melted.
The Sky Stone, a striking bluish rock, is thought to be a piece of a meteorite that fell to Earth. This unique stone was found in Africa and is said to contain a high concentration of oxygen.
In August 1942, the L-8 came back from its patrol of the California coast to search for Japanese submarines, but its two-person crew was no where to be seen.
On the evening of the 18th April 2023, a strange pillar of light has been seen by hundreds of people in the sky over Detroit. What is going on?
Chaneque are legendary creatures from Mexican folklore that are said to look like children with the face of an old person.
Some researchers believe that an archaeological site unearthed in Tennessee may have been created by ancient Egyptians.
In 1983, Loren Coleman coined the term "Bridgewater Triangle" to refer to an area located between Abington, Rehoboth, and Freetown in Massachusetts. This area seems to be a focal point for strange phenomena in the United States.
The "third man factor" is when someone in a dangerous or high-stress situation hears a voice giving them encouragement or advice. This voice is seen as coming from a spiritual or supernatural source, not just their own thoughts.