Horse-Whispering

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Horse-Whispering

A secret method by which certain persons are supposed to be able to acquire power over hard-to-manage horses. As is well known to students of Gypsy lore, Gypsies are reputed to be in possession of some secret by which they can render vicious horses entirely tame.

Opinions are divided as to whether this secret consists of the application of a certain odor or balm to the horse's muzzle, or whispering into its ear a spell or incantation. It has been claimed that the Gypsy horse-charmer applies anise seed to the nose of the animal.

Horse-whispering has also been in vogue among many other peoples. The antiquary William Camden, in his recital of Irish superstitions, states, "It is by no means allowable to praise a horse or any other animal unless you say 'God save him.' If any mischance befalls a horse in three days after, they find out the person who commended him, that he may whisper the Lord's Prayer in his right ear."

It was said by Con Sullivan, a famous Irish horse-whisperer of the eighteenth century, that practitioners of the art could not explain their power. This was affirmed by those who practiced it in South America, where a couple of men could tame half a dozen wild horses in three days. The same art was widely practiced in Hungary and Bohemia, and it was from a Bohemian Gypsy that a family in the county of Cork claimed to hold a secret by which the wildest or most vicious horse could be tamed. For generations this secret was regularly transmitted as a parting legacy at the time of death from the father to the eldest son.

Throughout the north of Scotland there are members of a secret society for breaking in difficult horses, which is believed to be called the Horseman's Society and which purports to trace its origin to the Dark Ages. Only those who gain their livelihood by the care and management of horses are admitted, and the more affluent and better educated are jealously excluded. Many farmers entertain a prejudice against the members of the society, but they are forced to admit that they are always very capable in managing their teams and can perform services that would otherwise require calling in a veterinary surgeon. They are usually skilled in the knowledge of herbs and medicinal plants, and a great deal of folklore surrounds them. It is stated that they hold their meetings at night in the clear moonlight, going through various equestrian performances with horses borrowed for the occasion from their masters' stables.

There is also said to be an inner circle in the society in which the black art and all the spells and charms of witchcraft are studied. Members of the inner circle are said to be able to smite horses and cattle with mysterious sickness, and even cast spells over human beings. One local writer stated that the inner circle of the horsemen employ hypnotic influence both on men and animals, as it is said certain North American Indians and some of the jungle tribes of Hindustan do.

On one occasion the services of the famous Con Sullivan were requisitioned by Colonel Westenra (afterward earl of Rosmore), who possessed a racehorse called Rainbow. The horse was savage and would attack any jockey courageous enough to mount him by seizing him by the leg with his teeth and dragging him from the saddle. A friend of the colonel's told him that he knew a person who could cure Rainbow, and a wager of £1,000 was laid on the matter. Sullivan, who was known throughout the countryside as "the Whisperer," was sent for. After being shut up alone with the animal for a quarter of an hour, he gave the signal to admit those who had been waiting on the result. When they entered, they found the horse extended on his back, playing like a kitten with Sullivan, who was quietly sitting by him, but both horse and operator appeared exhausted, and the latter had to be revived with brandy. The horse was perfectly tame and gentle from that day on.

Another savage steed, named King Pippin, took an entire night to cure, but in the morning he was seen following Sullivan like a dog, lying down at the word of command, and permitting any person to put his hand into his mouth. Shortly afterward he won a race at the Curragh.

Sullivan's statement that the successful whisperer is not acquainted with the secret of his own power may well be true. As Elihu Rich (in E. Smedley's The Occult Sciences, 1855) states:

"The reason is obvious. A force proceeding immediately from the will or the instinctive life would be impaired by reflection in the understanding and broken up or at least diminished by one half. The violent trembling of the animal under this operation is like the creaking and shivering of the tables before they begin to 'tip,' and indicates a moral or nervous force acting physically, by projection perhaps from the spirit of the operator. None of these cases are, after all, more wonderful than the movement of our own limbs and bodies by mental force, for how does it move them with such ease? And may not the same power that places its strong but invisible little fingers on every point of our muscular frames, stretch its myriad arms a little further into the sphere around us, and operate by the same laws, and with as much ease, on the stalwart frame of a horse?"