A horse whisperer is a horse trainer who aopts a sympathetic view of the motives, needs, and desires of the horse, based on natural horsemanship and modern equine psychology. The term goes back to the early nineteenth century when an Irish horseman, Daniel Sullivan, made a name for himself in England by rehabilitating horses that had become vicious and intractable due to abuse or accidental trauma. The term may go back farther than that, as the April 2008 Scientific American quotes itself from an 1858 issue containing a reference to "D. Sullivan, ... grandson of the celebrated 'Sullivan, the Whisperer' ", which could place the term somewhat earlier.