The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 25, December 19, 1840 — John Shaqi
The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 25, December 19, 1840Various
History
The Irish Penny Journal, Vol. 1 No. 25, December 19, 1840
Various
Ireland -- Periodicals
tried on a horse which could never before be brought to stand for a smith
to shoe him. The day after Sullivan’s half-hour lecture, I went, not
without some incredulity, to the smith’s shop, with many other curious
spectators, where we were eye-witnesses of the complete success of his
art. This, too, had been a troop horse, and it was supposed, not without
reason, that after regimental discipline had failed, no other would
be found availing. I observed that the animal seemed afraid whenever
Sullivan either spoke or looked at him. How that extraordinary ascendancy
could have been obtained, it is difficult to conjecture. In common
cases this mysterious preparation was unnecessary. He seemed to possess
an instinctive power of inspiring awe, the result perhaps of natural
intrepidity, in which I believe a great part of his art consisted;
though the circumstance of the _tete-a-tete_ shows that upon particular
occasions something more must have been added to it. A faculty like this
would in other hands have made a fortune, and great offers have been made
to him for the exercise of his art abroad; but hunting, and attachment to
his native soil, were his ruling passions. He lived at home in the style
most agreeable to his disposition, and nothing could induce him to quit
Dunhallow and the foxhounds.” Other whisperers have lived since Sullivan,
but none of them have attained an equal degree of fame. I met with one
some years ago of the name of O’Hara, and I can truly affirm that his
performances were indeed wonderful, and precisely similar to those of
Sullivan. How O’Hara discovered the secret, I know not; neither am I sure
that it was identical with that possessed by Sullivan. On one occasion,
while under the influence of liquor, O’Hara was heard to declare that the
secret lay in _rocking_ the horse; but on another, when equally tipsy,
he mentioned _biting_ the animal’s ear. It is already I believe known to
those acquainted with horses, that by grasping the shoulder with one hand
just where the mane begins, and laying the other with firmness upon the
crupper, and then swaying the animal backwards and forwards, beginning
with a very gentle motion and gradually increasing it, you will in a
few minutes be able to throw the horse on his side with a comparatively
trifling degree of exertion; and it is certain that this treatment is
frequently resorted to by knowing jockeys to break the spirit of a
stubborn horse; for after having been thrown twice, or at most thrice,
the spirit of the animal seems wholly subdued, and he appears possessed
with the most unqualified respect and dread of the person who threw him.
This was in all probability what O’Hara meant by _rocking_, and I have
little doubt but that this was one of the component parts, at all events,
of the treatment resorted to by the whisperers. As to _biting the ear_,
I have seen this tried, and that successfully. If you succeed in getting
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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