EITM: Lady Wonder 6/24/25

The famous psychic steed.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are you familiar with the horse, Lady Wonder?

Speaker 2 (00:05):
What about the the owner of the horse or I
guess do you own a horse?

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Yeah, the horse owner Claudia Fonda or trainer the nah
I think it's her horse. I think it's her horse.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Should we know her from maybe some other part of
part of life business or I.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Don't think so. Yeah, I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Like I don't think she's part of the famed Fonda family.
But she just she lived in Chesterfield and she had
this horse, Lady Wonder. People came from all over the
country to see Lady Wonder.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
And for what reason the horse was psychic?

Speaker 2 (01:02):
No, Diane, please don't make a face. Please don't make
a face. Please don't make a face.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Chesterfield had a psych.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Yes, absolutely, Kristen, Will you do me a favor? Will
you see if you could find me anybody who knows
of Lady Wonder. I don't care if they live in Chesterfield. Now,
I don't care if they grew up in Chesterfield, I
don't care.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
You know what they may be.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
They may be from one of the states where there
was I mean, this goes back to nineteen fifty, but
were there were people who would travel from all around
the country to go see Lady Wonder for psychic reasons.

Speaker 3 (01:36):
And how did they learn of her.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
The once word got out bro it took off. Law
enforcement and family used to come. They would come from
as far away as Rhode Island to find out like
where missing kids were?

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Are you being serious?

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Swear to God? And Lady Wonder was able to locate
some of them.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
Did they go into detail about how Lady Wonder was
able to give her clues?

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yes, absolutely, thank you for asking.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
So to my understanding, Claudia Fonda, Claudia Fonda, she kind
of made up a almost they call it a makeshift typewriter, right,
but the the it was like a big it almost
looks like a like a long keyboard, and there were

(02:23):
letters on the keyboard. And so they would ask questions
to Lady Wonder, the horse.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
It's everything I pictured, the scanty times, the no okay,
please please, please please.

Speaker 5 (02:39):
It's like this could be like.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Oh really, oh I'm sorry, explain that, Explain that to
the family of Gary Hayman.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
Is that a missing child?

Speaker 2 (02:52):
Well not anymore. I mean this goes back to nineteen
fifty two. He was from Rhode Island. They came there
to findind out where it is.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
So what would Lady Wonder do with this?

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Thank you?

Speaker 2 (03:04):
So anyway, they would ask, so sometimes they would ask.
Sometimes they would ask questions, and sometimes Lady Wonder would
just like with her head would just kind of like nod.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
I swear to God, I am just trying to get
through the facts.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
I am just trying to get through the facts, right,
So no disrespect sometimes.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Well it is, it's actually very disrespectful.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Sometimes Lady Wonder, depending on the question, would like nod
or shake her head no, or nod her head yes.
So like I'll just use Gary Hyman Hayman, excuse me.
The so they said, is Gary Hayman alive? Well, the
lady Lady Wonder yes, yes, shook her head yes. And

(03:52):
they said are they okay? Is he okay? And what
did what did the horse do? Well?

Speaker 5 (04:01):
I hope Lady Wonder shook her head yes.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
No, lady, that's so said that that he's alive.

Speaker 2 (04:09):
But Lady Wonder used her nose on this makeshift typewriter.
So what she would do is each of the keys
had a letter on it yeah, and Lady Wonder would
get her nose underneath the keys and flip them up
like this, flip them up right.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
I just want an apple. I just I just give
me a carrot, please.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Well I don't I don't understand why I can't get
through this. So anyway, she get underneath it and flip
it up and flip it up. But in order so
you weren't playing like jumble at the end of it.
So with with the Hayman kid.

Speaker 5 (04:45):
Oh, I see.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
So first, Lady Wonder nods the head yes, yes, and
they said, is is he okay? Lady Wonder, yes, puts
that nose down.

Speaker 1 (04:59):
Hits a. He flips it up. H okay, second key,
head down, flip it up.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
You flip up the third letter R, flip up the
fourth letter t oh, and then stop flipping letters.

Speaker 5 (05:19):
Damn hurt.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
I got that, well, thank you.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
The horse was able to spell it. I figure you
could the How great is that?

Speaker 1 (05:29):
Now? I will tell you this.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
The Lady Wonder, the famous psychic Steed, that's what that's
what they called her, also was able to predict I.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
Believe Wait, hold up, where was Gary they found him? Yeah?
Where was it?

Speaker 5 (05:45):
Hurt?

Speaker 1 (05:45):
Yeah? And you know what years later washed ashore? What
the yeah?

Speaker 3 (05:51):
I mean that's not what I thought the ending of
that story was.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
But was hurt. Now, I will tell you this.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
There was another kid who had been They couldn't they
didn't know if he ran away or anything.

Speaker 3 (06:02):
Wait, so he wasn't a lie let me at the time.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yes, but they think at the time that the horse
spelled it out. The answer was yes. It wasn't until
years later that they found who is.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
They law enforcement?

Speaker 2 (06:12):
Yes, But there was another one where there was a
kid that was missing and they wanted to know if
he was abducted or was taken by good people or
bad people because they were able to say where the
kid was and so sometimes it would take forever to
spell out Kansas. But they the horse spelled it out.
Lady Wonder did And then they said, oh, no, was

(06:32):
he taken by good people or bad people?

Speaker 1 (06:35):
And what did what did? What did? What did Lady
Wonder spell out bad? Good?

Speaker 3 (06:41):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (06:41):
Yeah, okay, why would good people abduct somebody?

Speaker 3 (06:44):
Dumb horse?

Speaker 2 (06:47):
No, because they think that like something had happened, like
the child was riding his bike and was in an accident.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
It's nineteen fifty two, Diane, would they do that? Text them? No,
who's dumb?

Speaker 2 (06:57):
Now they they drove him, they drove him to.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
Kansas.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
But you haven't answered how this horse became famous.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
How does anybody? Oh well, I was getting ready to
tell you, but you.

Speaker 2 (07:14):
Got all call it up on that minor detail out
of Rhode Island.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
Yeah, minor.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
The horse was able to The horse was able to
communicate with Claudia about like what the upcoming weather was
going to be. Also correctly predicted who would win the elections.

Speaker 4 (07:32):
So what do they do, like like fun super Bowl
picks back then?

Speaker 5 (07:35):
Or does that predate the Super Bowl?

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Seriously?

Speaker 2 (07:39):
Wait, like the horse walked around and like crapped on
a square and then no they As a matter of fact,
I believe nineteen fifty two who ran in fifty two
Harry Truman. By the end of nineteen fifty two, President
Harry Truman had won the presidential election, the United States

(08:01):
was sending troops to Korea, and Richmond had begun installing
safety systems around its railway, all of which Lady.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
Wonder had predicted months prior.

Speaker 3 (08:14):
So I see a little bit about Lady Wonders early history.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
By the way, Lady Wonder did readings for over one
hundred and fifty thousand people.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
Did they charge for these? By the way, you.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
Don't charge for helping people.

Speaker 3 (08:30):
Maybe it's a missing child, but for people who just
wanted a psychic reading, the I don't know then of
the horse, oh, the steed, the psychic.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
Steel lady wondered, the famous psychic steed put that paper aside.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
Did you get any history in your article or you're
write up about when the horse is born? Well, it's
it's category.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
So there were so let me, you're throwing a lot
of questions at me. Just to do a psychic reading
was ten cents, I mean change for inflation, it's like
thirty dollars.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
But now I will tell you this, by the mid.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
Nineteen thirties, prices were up to fifty cents for three
questions Claudia, and that's when that's when there was some
backlash because they thought that Claudia like so they would
ask a question, yes, no question, and that Claudia could
do Diane, Claudia could do this and the horse would

(09:32):
like raise its head, or she would do that and
the horse would say no.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
So they thought that.

Speaker 5 (09:37):
There was some she's coaching.

Speaker 1 (09:39):
No, she wasn't.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
They accused her of pantomiming the horse, which.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Wasn't the case.

Speaker 5 (09:45):
The horse is just mimicking.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
I like to use the word pantomiming. Okay, and then
but then explain spelling. Now, they said, naysayers, nay sayers.

Speaker 3 (09:55):
Way, why are you giving us all this? It's ruining
the story to me. No, it was an interesting story
until you told me she was No, she wasn't a carnie.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
No, that's what naysayers would say.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
They thought that she had somehow trained the horse at
which letter to pop up?

Speaker 1 (10:11):
Not the case at all.

Speaker 3 (10:14):
What was the case? Oh, the horse was psychic.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
Yeah, it's in the name, the famous psychic steed. How
have we never heard about the horse?

Speaker 3 (10:25):
May I read?

Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah? Go ahead.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
Born in nineteen twenty four, Lady Wonder came from Royalty.
This is the horse. Her papers listed her as the
granddaughter of a thoroughbred racehorse. Came into Fonda's care as
a young Philly.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
Now keep my Fonda had only ever had like Shetland ponies.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
She'd never had a thoroughbread.

Speaker 3 (10:46):
She knew that the brown and white mare with three
white stockings was special in the horses. Early years, Fonda
had bottle fed her on whole milk and oatmeal gruel
to maintain her energy and intelligence, nice, Fonda said. As
they've played, Lady began picking up on commands that Fonda
had not yet uttered, prompting her belief that the mayor

(11:09):
could read her mind.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
So instead of saying, I don't I don't know what
you train a horse to do. But instead of saying
like fetch, like throw the ball and yell fetch, the
horse would just start running. She hadn't even thrown the
ball yet. The horse would sit before she would say sit.
M The horse was reading her mind.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
So other people would come to see the horse. I
don't know if they were visiting for.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
Okay, well there's other people living in Chesterfield, but that
horse racing reasons.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
No, no, no, it was just to see this magical horse.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
Yes, but I'm that Chesterfield became Henriiko and then it
became like Ashland, and then it became the country.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
But they said that visitors who did not come for
the reasons of its psychic problem, it was just to
see it. They were they noticed things and so, and
Fonda picked up on them as well. That created this
story of this horse may be something special.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
They called Lady Wonder the Nostradamus of the twentieth century.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
I'm with you. It seems like something that would have
been mentioned to us.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
I know, how is that the case? Now I had
somebody on hold and they couldn't stick with me. Their
grandmother had gone to see the horse. No, no, I'm
being serious. Their grandmother had gone to see the horse
for like a but criminal case or just for a reading.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
Well that I don't know that. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (12:38):
Jesus.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
Do people not know the history of the horse. Do
people not even know?

Speaker 6 (12:42):
Like?

Speaker 1 (12:42):
Who do we know from Chesterfield? Hoy?

Speaker 3 (12:44):
How many people that she was asked about found were
found washed up on the banks of rivers? I see
two more boys here. Yeah, I think the horse might
be involved. No, but keep in mind it wasn't. They
didn't that you didn't go see the horse and then
text the police department.

Speaker 1 (13:01):
There it took time for word to get there.

Speaker 4 (13:03):
I'm seeing an old picture from back in the day
where there's a bunch of people lined up outside the barn.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Yes to get a reading.

Speaker 4 (13:10):
Yeah, we'll spell ad subtract multiplied divide tells time, answers questions.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
Oh, it would do math. I totally forgot about that. Yeah,
Lady Wonder would do math. Sometimes, Lady Wonder, they would
have them write the math problem down but not say it,
and lady Wonder what it would give the answer, and
then you would see the sheet of paper.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
Huh.

Speaker 3 (13:31):
It helped those betting on Pimlico race Course events choosing
twenty eight winning horses, all twenty eight winning horses, and
could forecast the location of oil wells as well as
their own death age.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
How about that? But you know the other thing that's
really impressive.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
They said that on aggregate of every eleven questions that
the horse was asked.

Speaker 5 (14:00):
For, right, I mean, respectable, respectable, it's a horse.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
It's a horse. You ever asked a horse a question?

Speaker 5 (14:10):
I haven't.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
By the way, how does Cappie not know this horse?
She's a horse, lady and young?

Speaker 4 (14:17):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (14:18):
But still, you know what you think she only knows
horses from the time she was alive.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
I bet she knows horses that date way.

Speaker 5 (14:24):
Back, but to the fifties.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
Oh, I'm sorry, is there a long list of psychic horses?

Speaker 3 (14:32):
I didn't know that.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
I only know I only know.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
The psychic horses to the seventies. Of course, How does
Hobi not know Hoby lives in Chesterfield.

Speaker 3 (14:41):
Oh here here the horse found a missing dog and
actually found it. It didn't wash up on the banks
of a river.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
A Long Island kennel had claimed the dog. Island had
claimed the dog had died, faked its grave, and then
sold the animal for a prophet through its Florida branch,
and the horse helped locate it. Yes, you are right.
The predictions and of eleven they run the gamut. There's

(15:10):
a lot of stuff here.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
Yeah, but don't they always say for somebody who's a psychic?
First of all, has there ever been? Honest question, has
there ever been? And don't start with the tinfoil hats,
but has there ever been a psychic?

Speaker 1 (15:22):
Yep, there you go.

Speaker 2 (15:23):
There's one idiot the I don't know who that is.
Has there ever been a psychic animal?

Speaker 3 (15:29):
And you're not counting the dozens they do roll out
during the Super Bowl.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
No, that is like, hey, this count took it dump
and thinks that the score is going to be this.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
No, that's not a psychic animal.

Speaker 3 (15:39):
Sometimes, like the octopus will swim to a different.

Speaker 2 (15:42):
Yeah, I like that bit. That's a fun bit. But
this again, this horse is spelling out answers.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
Iras says, this is not a good look for horse people.
Does not help.

Speaker 4 (15:56):
Now there's another link to a different horse called clever
Han who was popular during the late eighteen hundreds early
nineteen hundreds.

Speaker 5 (16:06):
He could do math.

Speaker 4 (16:07):
No, he could do math and other intellectual tests during
exhibitions in Germany.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
Explain how explain how this horse?

Speaker 3 (16:15):
Wait?

Speaker 2 (16:15):
Forget the eighteen hundreds, the nineteen fifties. We have people
that were alive. We have people listening that were alive
in nineteen fifty and if they weren't, their parents were
or their grandparents were. So this isn't like, oh this
goes this is old timey. This is during their lifetimes
or their parents' lifetimes. How's a horse do math? That's

(16:36):
not a setup to a joke. I'm asking how does
a horse do math?

Speaker 3 (16:41):
Well? Can I read one sentence that the skeptics often
pointed to Go ahead, Political races always carry a fifty
percent chance of accuracy.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
Here we go, so you always have a fifty percent
chance of being right.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
I have to read the second part. And drowning was
one of the leading causes of death of children in
the nineteen fifties.

Speaker 5 (17:00):
Odds.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
Ah, does Claudia Fonda have any family that remains in
the Richmond area?

Speaker 5 (17:11):
I would bet why not?

Speaker 1 (17:14):
No, No, I would bet too.

Speaker 3 (17:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
I don't know how old Claudia Fonda was in the fifties.
I mean she'd be an older woman.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
Now you think she's in her nineties. Do you think
she was in her twenties and the fifties, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
I have no idea. I don't have an age on her.
I know the horror picture, say, get.

Speaker 3 (17:31):
You a picture of her with the horse.

Speaker 1 (17:35):
No, but I do have this.

Speaker 5 (17:36):
I have one. She was pretty old back then.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
Mother asked horse to help find her son, talking animal
furnishes clue.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
The hollist didn't talk, It talked through spelling.

Speaker 3 (17:47):
Now it's mister ed.

Speaker 4 (17:48):
This picture from nineteen fifty two shows Claudia Fonda probably
looking to be in her sixties.

Speaker 5 (17:56):
I would say, okay.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
But you don't think she's got offspring.

Speaker 5 (18:03):
That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (18:03):
I would be surprised if she didn't have people still
in Chesterfield, yes.

Speaker 1 (18:07):
Or I mean just anywhere, yeah, anywhere. How do people
not know this story?

Speaker 4 (18:13):
This seems right up Hoby's Alley.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
By the way, doesn't al Towyda live in Chesterfield? Doesn't
or did he used to live in Chesterfield.

Speaker 3 (18:27):
I love the story, which is why I'm bothered that
it doesn't seem like anyone knows about him.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
No, and that bothers me. I feel like this story
should be very well known and celebrated.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
I'm reading more about it.

Speaker 1 (18:44):
I got a psychic horse, Gary Hayman. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:48):
Did you read his story though?

Speaker 5 (18:50):
Was that the one that she predicted?

Speaker 3 (18:53):
Well, that was the one that said hurt, hurt, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
Yeah, Yeah. He ran away from school. That's all. I mean,
that's all.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
I remember a school for the feeble minded, which it
was sound.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
Ye, I don't even know what that is. That's that's
clearly not gifted and talented now like.

Speaker 3 (19:13):
He did not speak as a toddler because of an illness,
escaped to the school for the feeble minded. This was
up in Rhode Island and was last seen running into
the woods when his clothes were found neatly piled beside
a small stream. A few weeks after, local police gave up,
but his mother clung to the notion he was still alive.

(19:36):
With little help from the police, who deemed him just
a runaway from the feeble minded school and no clues
to go on, Hayman began her own search. Her quest
found her placing a call to the Richmond Times Dispatch
reporter Bill mckilwaine, and the following morning, the kil Wayne

(19:57):
was traveling down a dirt road off of Petersburg turnbike,
slinging up dust and gravel as went as he pulled
into the driveway of Fonda's farmhouse.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
So the actual reporter mcelwaine, what's his name whatever, went
to go ask the horse very good line six, Hi,
yellie of the morning?

Speaker 5 (20:17):
Is this me?

Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (20:18):
Hi?

Speaker 1 (20:18):
Who's this? Justin? Yes? Justin? Are you familiar with Lady
wonder Well?

Speaker 6 (20:26):
You mentioned the one that could count, Not Lady Wander
the other one from the eighteen hundreds, Oh.

Speaker 4 (20:32):
The German one, the clever Hans, Clever Hans, clever.

Speaker 6 (20:36):
Clever HANSI yeah, I learned about him in psychology class.
He's a master of intuition. He can't actually count. What
he can do is he can read the crowd and
people behave in very subtle ways, very subtle gives within
the crowd before the appropriate number of horse hoof clicks
are made on the ground, and that's how he could

(20:58):
appear to count, but he couldn't.

Speaker 1 (20:59):
Actually, I ain't buying that.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
So just because the like as the anticipation built the horse,
the horse knew like, oh, look at everybody, I must
be close. I'll stop here.

Speaker 5 (21:10):
Could all those Germans be wrong?

Speaker 1 (21:16):
The I listen, I understand, you know what the problem is?
You know it is it'sblably.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
Even if it was within one or two, I would
still think it's amazing it is.

Speaker 6 (21:28):
But this I don't know how to explain. Lady wonders. Uh,
you know, forensic abilities and being able to see in
the future. I need to learn more about that. But
I did learn about clever Hans. He's often taught in
psychology classes about you know, the idea of intuition and
and even conformity, you know, uh, changing to your environment
based on the way the people around you.

Speaker 2 (21:49):
Behave Also, is anybody else listen? You can argue whether
the horse was psychic or not. Is anybody else impressed
just with the fact the horse could spell yeah and
it's keyboard yes, like for example, it's spelled good and hurt.
It didn't it didn't. Just I bet I could go

(22:11):
thank you sir, thank you.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
I bet you.

Speaker 2 (22:13):
Could find like, I don't what age whatever, but you
could ask people they can't spell it.

Speaker 3 (22:20):
Also did truck in Kansas, right, but told you didn't
have to do it in the right order. I just
had to flip up the letters and then you had
to kind of jumble them. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:32):
No, but in most cases.

Speaker 3 (22:38):
Altito says he knows the horse.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
Does he really?

Speaker 5 (22:44):
Why did they work together?

Speaker 2 (22:49):
Can I go to line one? Hi, Ellie in the morning.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
I think I got Riverbank?

Speaker 1 (23:10):
Thank you, sir. Funny Line three, Hi Elliot in the morning.
Hey it's me, Yeah, Hi, who's this Hello?

Speaker 3 (23:23):
Yes?

Speaker 6 (23:23):
Hey, this is Greg.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
Yes. What should I wanted to say? I don't I
don't know why everybody's so surprised about a psychic horse
in the past.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
We have a horse's ass in TC.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
Okay, all right, very good, thank you sir. Thank you.

Speaker 5 (23:36):
Now people are just going to do bits yep. I
tried to I hope a horse calls in again.

Speaker 3 (23:42):
What's online too?

Speaker 2 (23:43):
It's probably just the fish guys, animals, And that's an
honest connection. No, you know what I tried to I
tried to teach history. I tried to teach it's something
awesome to learn. You should be embarrassed if you grew
up in Chesterfield and you don't know your history.