Throughout the first, and a good deal of the second, millennium, the Horse was regarded by many as a mystical animal. The term Horse Whisperer has been around for a long time, first recorded in the 3rd century B.C. about Alexander the Great as a child, when he trained a stallion his father had given up on. Although that horse was afraid of its own shadow, the small boy was able to understand and calm it. The first North American Horse Whisperers were of course Native Americans. Clearly, such was the power of the horse that a man able to harness it to his will rose above the level of the ordinary man in pre-industrial times. And to those who lacked the skills, and were in awe of the ability to control such power, the horseman could all too easily be believed to have mystical knowledge.
Even the colors of horses had meaning. White horse was connected to the Moon, Red with the Sun, and Black with the Wild Huntsman. Pale Horse meant famine and death. If a certain word was whispered into the horse's ear, he would become compliant. This secret word was passed down among blacksmiths from father to son.
For many, 'mystical knowledge' suggested use of the arts of sorcery and , and it is not surprising that some particularly skillful trainers were burned as witches. In fact it was not only the trainer who was at risk. In the case of a horse called Mauroco who performed in the French town of Arles in the 17th century, the horse was burnt along with the trainer! How many more might have suffered the same fate is not well recorded, but we can safely say that any man or woman who exhibited unusual ability was liable to be denounced. Just to be seen talking to an animal was quite enough to attract a charge of - ! The early Christian church did not take well to such ideas.
It is no wonder then that those who were skillful also became somewhat tight-lipped about their work, and often chose to do it in a place that was safe from prying eyes. So, we have mysticism, secrecy and silence - all the required ingredients for the creation of a myth. Once the practice of burning witches had finished, showman practitioners began to flourish. The aura of mystery remained, but this could now be turned towards attracting a crowd and, along with the crowd - their money! In Victorian England, John Rarey did his training within a closed barn, where no one could observe his techniques. A wild, unruly horse would go in . . . and a docile, totally changed animal would come out. Legend has it that another of the first famous whisperers was called Dan Sullivan from Mallow in Ireland. He would tame vicious and stroppy horses by whispering to them. The horse would undergo a personality change and then follow Sullivan's lead. He is said to have learnt his technique from a soldier who had been taught by a mystic in India. Dan's method also involved taking the horse into the secrecy of a barn from which the horse would emerge, completely subdued (and some say in a state of terror). On what took place in the barn Dan's lips were sealed. But the horses' old ways returned once they escaped Dan's influence. Some said that Sullivan's method, whatever it was, was cruel, and that he damaged the reputation of those 'whisperers' who, by some innate gift, were able to quiet the most unruly horses. Whatever the truth was, the term 'horse whisperer' had arrived to stay.
Secret societies sprang up, supposedly to teach the whispering secrets. There were some very strange rituals associated with these groups. One required that the horseman kill a frog or toad and hang the body on a thorn tree until only the skeleton remained. At full moon the man then had to take the skeleton to a running stream and throw it into the water. One small forked bone would detach itself from the rest and float upstream, and that was the bone from which the horseman would then derive devil-given power over horses. Such were the "Toadmen"; whisperers with a demon covenant.For many horsemen in olden times their whole livelihood and safety depended on their ability to achieve a good working relationship with the equines in their care. And some people seem to have a natural flair for working with horses. But this has nothing to do with 'whispering' or pacts with the devil, and an awful do with body language, personal temperament and, perhaps most important of all, patience, kindness and a real affection for horses. For every gifted horse person there are, and always have been, untold numbers of charlatans whose primary interest is lightening the purses of the unwary and gullible. (Sure sounds like the problems with psychics, eh?)
One example was the classic case of 'Professor' Sample and his ''Marvellous Horse Taming Machine" who arrived in London in 1885 bringing with him his machine, with which he declared he could tame three or four wild horses per hour. The machine consisted of a platform onto which a horse would be loaded and secured, and would then be spun by a steam engine until the horse became quite dizzy. Unfortunately for the self-styled professor the machine failed to work during most public displays in theatres of the time. Such was the design that the mechanism only functioned when on a level surface, and theatre stages were commonly angled down toward the audience - otherwise folks might still be disorienting horses to this day!
As the heyday of horse power waned with the introduction of modern machinery the whisperers passed into the twilight - a myth, born out of ignorance, and shrouded in secrecy and superstition, whose heyday had passed.Today there are at least a hundred modern trainers who are called whisperers. Whisperers, it seems, now come in both genders and all shapes and sizes, and variously offer 'horse whisperer training techniques', 'secret techniques' and even whisperers with 'clairvoyant understanding'. There are 'whispering' challenges and time trials, courses offering to teach the horseman's word, in fact a whole little industry whose various gurus circle the globe performing brief but expensive clinics and seminars for the 'enlightenment' of the horse owner, so perhaps nothing has really changed.
The key to this magic training can be explained as follows:Listen to what the horse has to say through his body language. His tail tightly between his legs, means he's tense. If his head is high, he's bothered about something. If it's low, he's not paying attention. If a he licks his lips, it's kind of a concession and he'll probably be willing to at least try to do what you ask. To be successful working with horses, listen to their side of the story. Others say that training a horse is basically typical behavior modification. Horse whispering is about achieving leadership through creating a relationship of trust with the horse.
Perhaps the true mystique of the horse is that, through our relationships with them, we are able to rediscover that precious connection between ourselves and the rest of creation - a truly mystical oneness that cannot be bought or sold, and requires neither show nor whisper! The horse teaches people how to be free and beckons them to come on an adventure. People riding horses speak of galloping with the wind. It is said that horses teach that "wild hearts can't be broken."
