The Horseman's Word facts for kids

The Horseman's Word, also known as the Society of Horsemen, was a secret society in Britain. It was for people who worked with horses. The group started in north-eastern Scotland in the early 1800s. Later, it spread to other parts of Scotland and into Eastern England. By the mid-1900s, the society became much smaller. However, it still exists in some parts of Scotland today.

The Horseman's Word was like a trade union. It helped protect the skills of horse trainers, blacksmiths, and ploughmen. These workers often had a lower social status. The society made sure its members were well-trained. It also defended their rights against wealthy landowners. The group also had some spiritual beliefs. They taught rituals that members believed gave them power over horses. Some thought these members could even control women.

To join, new members went through a special initiation ceremony. During this, they read parts of the Bible backwards. The society had secrets, like Masonic-style promises, special handshakes, and secret words. People believed that members, like the Miller's Word and Toadmen groups, practiced a type of witchcraft. In East Anglia, these powerful horsemen were sometimes called Horse Witches.

In the 1900s, scholars like J. M. McPherson and George Ewart Evans studied the Horseman's Word. Some first thought it was a very old religious group from before Christianity. But later research showed it started in the 1800s.

History of the Horseman's Word

How the Society Began

The Horseman's Word was one of many groups that grew from Freemasonry in Britain. In Scotland, Freemasonry was known as the "Mason's Word." This was because of a secret password they used. Freemasonry influenced many friendly societies. These groups helped working people if they got sick or old. Examples include the Society of Oddfellows and the Ancient Order of Foresters. These groups used similar initiation ceremonies and rituals as Freemasonry.

Freemasonry and these friendly societies were not as strong in rural Scotland. So, new groups formed there. They fit local needs but still used the basic Masonic style. In the 1700s, the Miller's Word started among grain millers in Scotland. This group aimed to control who could join their trade. It had local groups with initiations, passwords, and secrets. They met at night and claimed to have magic powers. They said they got these powers by reading the Bible backwards three times over three years.

In the early 1800s, draft horses became very important on farms in Northern Scotland. They replaced oxen in areas like Aberdeen and the Moray Firth. They also replaced ponies in Caithness and Orkney. Because of this, knowing how to raise and control these horses was a valuable skill. People with this skill were in high demand. This made horse work a good, well-paid job. Historian Timothy Neat said horsemen were "serious, practical men."

Why the Horseman's Word Formed

The Horseman's Word was created to help these horse workers. Besides protecting their trade knowledge, the group wanted to make sure members were well-trained. They also wanted to ensure good work quality and fair pay. It acted like a trade union. Its goal was to protect horse trainers and ploughmen. It also protected their skills. This was important as farm resources became privately owned. Wages and prices were increasingly controlled by large farm owners.

One writer, Ben Fernee, explained: "The ploughmen did not own the land, the horses, the harness, the ploughs or their homes. But they took control of the new technology, the horses. They made sure that only a brother of the Society of the Horseman's Word might work them." The Horseman's Word copied many ideas from the Miller's Word. However, it quickly became much larger and less exclusive.

This group gave men a sense of importance. They had low economic and social status otherwise. Their knowledge, skills, and job importance gave them authority. Timothy Neat also called it "a quasi-religious and mystical cult." Historian Ronald Hutton described it as "a male anti-society." He said it was "bent on deliberate misbehaviour in a private and controlled setting."

How the Society Spread and Changed

During the 1800s, the Horseman's Word spread from Scotland. It went to other parts of Scotland and then into eastern England. This happened partly because Scots moved south to work on English farms. In England, the group's structure and rituals stayed similar. But its name became the Society of Horsemen.

In England, the Word mixed with older horse traditions. Draft horses had replaced oxen there much earlier. People in English folk tales often said witches or cunning folk could control farm animals. By the 1800s, some men in Britain were famous for controlling horses. Examples include James Samuel Rare and Sydney Frederick Galvayne. These people were often called "horse whisperers." This term came from Ireland in the early 1800s. The Word never became as popular in England as it was in Scotland. For example, in Suffolk, it's thought that only about one percent of farms had members of the group.

As more people learned to read in the 1800s, books on horsemanship became available. This information was added to the Word's spoken traditions. Many horsemen also had links to British cavalry regiments. This brought military horse knowledge into the society. In Scotland, the Horseman's Word remained important until the mid-1900s. It slowly became like a working men's club. It focused on its members' well-being.

By the late 1990s, it still existed in northern Scotland. It was a secret group for horse lovers. The current Baron Kilmarnock says he is a member. He states he joined in Sandwick, Orkney in 1983.

Practices of the Horseman's Word

Joining the Society: The Initiation Ceremony

Timothy Neat said the Horseman's Word initiation ceremony was "a dramatic and memorable event." The special language and rituals made it very meaningful for those taking part. The exact ceremony and promises changed between groups. However, all were clearly based on Freemasonry. Severe punishments were set for anyone who broke their promise.

The Horseman's Word borrowed much from the Miller's Word ceremony. In that ceremony, bread and whisky were given like special offerings. New members were also blindfolded. Horseman's Word members added their own ideas. These included their own passwords, oaths, and challenges during the ceremony.

In the Horseman's Word group in Angus, initiations usually happened at night. They preferred the time of the full moon. They met in a quiet barn, stable, or farm building. A person called the High Horseman led the ceremony. He sat holding a goat's hoof. The new member was stripped to the waist and blindfolded. Others spun him around to make him dizzy. Then he was brought into the room to stand before the High Horseman.

The High Horseman asked questions, and others gave set answers. Then, he turned to the new member, who knelt and had his blindfold removed. The High Horseman told the newcomer to promise to keep the group's secrets. After this, everyone recited the Horseman's Creed. This reminded them of the punishments for breaking their promises. After the ceremony, a ceilidh (a social gathering with music and dancing) was held. Toasts were made, and horsemen drank whisky that the new member had brought.

Before the ceremony, the candidate, often a young ploughboy, was told to come to the barn. The procedures usually took place between 11 PM and 1 AM. Once at the door, he was blindfolded. He was then led before the master of ceremonies, often an older ploughman. Like in Masonic rituals, there was a set exchange of questions and answers. For the Horseman's Word and Miller's Word, this exchange often made fun of religious teachings. After this, the new member was asked to shake hands with the "devil." This was often a branch or pole covered in animal fur.

A common part of the initiation was a trick. After the person promised never to reveal the secret "word," they were told to write it down. If they tried to write it, they would be whipped on their back or knuckles. This was because trying to write it meant breaking their oath.

The Secret "Word"

After the initiation, the new member was given a secret "word." This word was supposed to give them power over horses. "The Horseman's Word" was an actual spoken word. This secret word was different in different places. People believed it had magical and mystical powers. They thought that just by whispering it, the person who knew the word could completely control horses.

Besides learning the secret word, members also learned practical ways to control and train horses. These methods were kept secret. This helped horsemen keep their reputation for having unique, almost magical, power over horses. Timothy Neat said the Horseman's Word was "filled with rich language that would have thrilled" famous writers like William Shakespeare.

Horseman's Word Techniques and Secrets

Before joining the society, potential members often had trouble with horses. This was sometimes because older members would secretly mess with their horses. They might put tacks under a horse's collar to make it act wild. The potential member wouldn't know why the horse was behaving badly. This was because they hadn't yet learned the secret training methods.

Many of these techniques used the horse's strong sense of smell. Bad-smelling things placed in front of a horse, or on the animal itself, would make it refuse to move. This trick is called "jading" and is still used by some horse trainers today. There were also good-smelling things used to make a horse move forward or calm down. If it was an oil, a trainer could wipe it on their forehead. Then, standing in front of the horse, the smell would draw the horse towards them. This was often used to calm wild horses.

Horsemen also kept pleasant-smelling things, like sweets, in their pockets. These could calm, attract, or control a wild horse. Keeping these techniques secret, along with the idea of a magic word, helped horsemen keep their reputation, importance, job security, and good pay. This is similar to how modern magicians keep their tricks secret. They only share them with other magicians.

One critic of the society, a ploughman who later became a grocer, wrote a book in 1879. He claimed that the real secret of the Horseman's Word was "the thorough, careful, and kind treatment of the animals, combined with a reasonable amount of knowledge of their anatomical and physiological structure."

Legacy of the Horseman's Word

Studying the Society's History

In the 1900s, several scholars began to study the history of the Horseman's Word. J.M. McPherson was one of the first. In his 1929 book, Primitive Beliefs in the North-East of Scotland, he suggested it was a survival of an ancient pagan cult. He thought it had been persecuted during the witch trials in the Early Modern period. Folklorist Thomas Davidson supported these ideas in a 1956 article. George Ewart Evans also promoted this theory in four books published in the 1960s and 1970s. However, neither Davidson nor Evans had looked at the original Scottish sources. McPherson had only used observations from the late 1800s.

Around the same time, other researchers studied the society's origins. They disagreed with the idea that it had ancient roots. In 1962, Hamish Henderson showed how it had started in the 1700s. Ian Carter expanded on this information in his 1979 study of Scottish farm life.

In 2009, The Society of Esoteric Endeavour published a collection of old texts about the society. It was called The Society of the Horseman's Word. A special edition of the book included an envelope. Inside was a piece of horse hair tied in the same way used to invite new members long ago.

See also

• Magical organization
• Neopagan witchcraft
• Secret society