The Horseman's Word

The Horseman's Word, also known as the Society of Horsemen, is a fraternal secret society operating in Britain for those who work with horses. Established in north-eastern Scotland during the early nineteenth century, in ensuing decades it spread both to other parts of Scotland and south into Eastern England. Although having largely declined by the mid-twentieth century, the society continues to exist in a diminished capacity within parts of Scotland.

Influenced by the formation of the Miller's Word and other friendly societies that based their structure on Freemasonry, the Horseman's Word was founded to cater to the growing number of individuals who worked with draft horses in north-eastern Scotland. Its members included horse trainers, blacksmiths, and ploughmen, all of whom were of lower economic and class status in Scottish society. It acted as a form of trade union, aiming to protect trade secrets, ensuring that its members were properly trained, and defending the rights of its members against the wealthier land-owners. Also exhibiting a semi-religious dimension, it involved the teaching of magical rituals designed to provide the practitioner with the ability to control both horses and women.

Membership of the society required an initiation ceremony, during which Horsemen read passages from the Bible backwards, and the secrets included Masonic-style oaths, gestures, passwords and handshakes. Like the similar societies of the Miller's Word and the Toadmen, they were believed to have practiced witchcraft. In East Anglia, horsemen with these powers were sometimes called Horse Witches.

During the twentieth century, the Word attracted the attention of several folklorists and historians, among them J. M. McPherson, George Ewart Evans, and Hamish Henderson. Although a number of these scholars initially suggested that the society represented a survival of a pre-Christian religious order, later historical research established the group's nineteenth-century origins.

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