horse whisperer

plural horse whisperers

1. A horse trainer who adopts a sympathetic view of the motives, needs, and desires of the horse, based on modern equine psychology.
2. A person who purportedly has a magical ability that enables them to speak to horses or to have control over horses through whispering.

   The curious feature of the art was that "horse-whisperers" actually talked to the animal, usually from mouth to ear, in an unintelligible tongue; which, however, the horses appeared to understand.

   1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 216

   1 more example

   Nothing irks me more than when people call me a Horse Whisperer. Let me say once and for all – I’m not a Horse Whisperer. There are no special gifts or secret magic powers when it comes to training horses. No-one can teach a horse by ‘whispering’ or looking into his eyes. No-one can apply some ‘secret’ process and have horses instantly understand everything forever more.

   2015 July 28, Neil Davies, “Archived copy”, in There’s no such thing as a ‘horse whisperer’, archived from the original on 09 Oct 2020