Horses in the City

CARD (Community Association for Riding for Disabled), Liberty Horses and the Toronto Mounted Police invite you to be amazed and delighted by the intelligent and generous talents of our huge, co-operative animals.

Equestrians, philanthropists, creative urban kids and inquisitive adults will meet the always enthusiastic Liberty Horse brothers, Zelador and Zeloso, with their owners Winnie and Bill Stott.

Police officers will entertain with their unusual horse games and playful races then invite you into the arena for an exclusive “Meet and Greet”, community building experience, up-close with many of the noble police horses.

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The Liberty Horses play several of the cognitive games, which had their beginning with a remarkable horse, Beautiful Jim Key, in the 1890s. Beautiful Jim Key’s owner, Dr. Bill Key (a former slave), coined the phrase: Be Kind to Animals.

Equestrian Artist Ann Clifford, together with CARD, will present a “Police Horse Appreciation Sculpture,” in recognition of the courage of these animals and the generous support of the Mounted Officers for CARD over the years.

The event, takes place at the Horse Palace Warm-up Arena, at the CNE grounds, on Tuesday June 19th, from 12:00 – 1.00 p.m. It is wheelchair accessible.

The Liberty Horses, Zelador and Zeloso, are Lusitano geldings born in 2004. Winnie and Bill Stott purchased them as weanlings and by the time they were two years old they were introduced to pedestals and a few games. They were started under saddle them when they were three and began playing with Working Equitation. This is a relatively new discipline, which has a very interesting obstacle course. The boys thoroughly enjoyed learning about the different apparatus.

When Z and Z were seven, the Stotts heard about the Beautiful Jim Key. This is a horse that performed before hundreds of thousands of people between the 1890s and 1907. It’s reported that the Beautiful Jim Key could do many things, including reading, telling time, doing math and differentiating objects. Reading about the Beautiful Jim Key and his owner-breeder-teacher, Dr. Bill Key, opened the couple’s eyes and minds. The question – could horses really do these things? The Stott’s have tried teaching a few of the Beautiful Jim Key’s skills to over a half dozen horses. The horses are of different breeds and range in age from two to 22. The results are startling. For example: they are constantly amazed that horse after horse can pick a specific item from a group. And they guess that even Dr. Bill Key was just scratching the surface when it comes to discovering what a horse can learn.

For more about Zelador and Zeloso, check out Winnie’s blog at http://www.horse-canada.com/winnies-blog/