186 THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER 



there is any record in modern times. His triumph, 

 commenced by his purchasing for " an old song " a 

 dragoon's horse at Mallow, which was so savage 

 that he was obliged to be fed through a hole in the 

 wall. After one of Sullivan's lessons, the trooper 

 drew a car quietly through Mallow, and remained a 

 very proverb of gentleness for years after. In fact, 

 with mule or horse, one half-hour's lesson from 

 Sullivan was enough, but the horses relapsed in 

 other hands. Sullivan's own account of the secret 

 was that he originally acquired it from a wearied 

 soldier who had not money enough to pay for a pint 

 of porter he had drunk. The landlord of the ale- 

 house was retaining part of his kit, when Sullivan, 

 who sat in the bar, vowed he would never see a 

 hungry man want, and gave the soldier so good a 

 luncheon, that in his gratitude he drew him aside at 

 parting, and revealed what he believed to be an 

 Indian charm. 



6 Sullivan never took any pupils, and, so far as 

 I can learn, never attempted to train colts by his 

 method, although that is a more profitable and use- 

 ful branch of business than training vicious horses. 

 It is stated in an article in Household Words on 

 horse-tamers that he was so jealous of his gift that 

 even the priest of Ballyclough could not wring it 

 from him at the confessional. His son used to boast 

 how his reverence met his sire as they both rode 

 towards Mallow, and charged him with being a con- 



