photo of Nevzorova & horse courtesy,Lydia Nevzorova
Near the beginning of the 19th century, farmers became fed up with the slow and bulky oxen and began to experiment with the use of draft horses for agricultural purposes. At that time the horse offered greater efficiency and speed but they were also less cooperative than the ox, and many were downright belligerent. Recognizing the potential of a new industry, a collection of horsemen in Scotland formed a group named: The Society of the Horseman’s Word. This “Society” gathered the local blacksmiths, horse tamers and dealers together and offered them a type of union. In return for the Society’s fees for membership, they promised their members a list of all public inquiries for equine services. In addition to a standardized quality of work, the Scottish promised the public that members of their society had a ‘gift’. They claimed their members possessed a mystical equine ‘supernatural’ power, which was native to each of its members because of their Scottish culture. To insure their claim, Society members were taught to verbally practice various incantations and rituals to give the impression that not just training but also a special magic was controlling undisciplined, or vicious horses. As local farmers signed on to the Society’s services, they began to claim the members did indeed fix their recalcitrant horses. That’s when they first used the words ‘horse-witchers’ to describe the procedures used in training. Eventually the phrase ‘horse-witcher’ changed to ‘horse whisperer’ reflecting the way these horse tamers would whisper into the ears of the horses. The popularity of the Society of the Horseman’s Word escalated, not only throughout Scotland but into parts of England as well. When the technique crossed the ocean, the phrase ‘horse whisperer’ became the highest endorsement of a tamer’s talent.
Through the industrialization of the 20th century farming was again revolutionized through the invention of the tractor. Furthermore, transportation for the common man changed with the invention of the car, trending away from the need for horses. By the 1920′s the auto industry was the new powerful corporation and The Society of the Horseman’s Word obsolete. The Society that had monopolized the horse industry with its ”horse whispering” incantations quietly disbanded before 1930.
But was horse whispering actually discovered by the Scottish? The phrase ‘horse whisperer’ did indeed originate during Scottish times, but the practice, or use, of horse whispering had already been in use. In fact, nearly two thousand years before the Society was even formed, Alexander the Great and Xenophon the horse master, (both around 300-355 BC), showed such compassion in their training approach that we consider them as some of the first actual “horse whisperers”. Xenophon was the first horse master to write a book on meeting the horse through its ‘soul’.
In the mid 1600′s, over a thousand years after Xenophon’s book and a few centuries before the Scottish “Society”, a young Neapolitan used horse whispering techniques to gentle a wild barb horse. Mauraco was an angry animal who refused to yield to violent training and torture. Pietro was a young man who could see that since violence had not improved the horse, that maybe rewards might gentle him. So, rather than using a saddle and bridle, he declined riding and taught the horse to do tricks. He educated the horse to respond to subtle hand gestures, and ended up taming the horse with his kinder approach. Mauraco is one of the first known horses who could sit, kneel, lie down, jump through hoops, and even take a glove to someone Pietro pointed to in the audience. Pietro devoted his public shows throughout Europe to proving how the use of rewards developed the horse’s respect and trust. Unfortunately, the trainer was ahead of his time. Performing his show in the city of Arles, France, he induced hysteria in the townspeople. It was black magic, they claimed, controlling the horse. The casual hand movements appeared to them to be putting demons into the horse, and evil in its mind by whispering in its ear. The town immediately demanded that both horse and master be executed, and so both were burned to death on the spot.
The gentle approach of horsemen such as Pietro, Alexandre the Great, and Xenophon, led the pathway to using cooperation and trust with the horse, rather than intimidation. Xenophon’s book advised riders to “match the strength and boldness of the horse to the logic of human intent”. Monty Roberts, wrote in his book, “The Man Who Listens To Horses”: “A good trainer can hear a horse speak to him. A great trainer can hear him whisper.” Monty discovered that horses have their own body language which they use to communicate between themselves, so he used this ‘language’ to assist the horses in understanding what humans wanted from them. By allowing the horse to understand his handler through its own body language, we have bridged the gap between the human and the equine, creating a common ground that connects the horse straight to the ‘human intent’. “Capture their willingness and …make them happy to work” wrote Xenophon of the horse. This is a clear declaration of the spirit and origin of the ancient art of horse whispering.
Monty Roberts & horse
References: Xenophon,”Treatise on Horsemanship”; 350BC
Delcampe,M. “Ecuyer de la Grande Ecurie Du Roi”; 1661
Nolan, Capt. L.E., “Training of Cavalry Remount Horses”; 1852
Hutton, R.”Triumph of the Moon”;2001
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