The Gift of the Whisperer
“The Whisperer,” Thurman Hollimon, pictured left, rides with Bob Young (the father of the Loretta, the author of this story). Image enhanced/colorized by Gemini, an AI from Google.
Thurman Hollimon was born at a time in the history of our country when most people would have been glad to have two nickels to rub together just to hear them jingle.
The year of 1929 was a frightful, uncertain, place for most folks, but the Hollimans, like many rural families in the South, made-do with what they grew, had a couple of cows and some chickens and they bartered for things like coffee and sugar.
Thurman was the baby of five in a boisterous family that worked hard, and grew up honest, with moral and ethical values. After high school, Thurman joined the Navy and came home safely, honorably discharged.
There were a couple of really notable things about Thurman, and one was his height. At 6’4” he stood out in a crowd. Coupled with his smile and movie star good looks, you’d have thought they would have gotten him anywhere he wanted to go in life, but it was the other thing about him that brought people to his door, even before he left for the Navy, when he was just a kid.
You see, Thurman Hollimon was known in the world of horses and dogs as “The Whisperer,” and he lived up to that name for as long as anyone could remember.
Some say there is a possibility that this gift could have come through the Cherokee generations on the Pierce side of his family. Wherever it came from, it earned him great respect and provided a way to earn money while doing what he loved to do.
Over the years, his only child, Lisa, watched in awe as her dad would sooth the most savage dogs, or break and ride horses that no one else could even get near.
“As I got older, I watched as my dad would take any dog that anybody did not want or was just unruly or, you know, untrainable, and he would train those dogs,” Lisa says. “I remember a Doberman pinscher, a German Shepherd, a great Dane and two chow chows. All at different times over the years some might be aggressive. Some others were timid, but he worked with them and just got them out of all their bad stages.”
Thurman had them trained in just a short time to obey his every command: come, sit, stay, fetch to mention a few. He just had the knack for connecting with animals, Lisa remembers.
“He also trained racking horses, walking horses, and he once bought a set of wild Mustangs and broke them, trained them to pull a wagon and they listened to no one but him,” she explains. “Everyone who knew my dad in the animal world called him “ the dog whisperer.”
Over the years, his reputation as a dog and horse trainer grew. People came from long distances to get help for animals that others had given up on.
Lisa grew up, married Benny Hollis and had two boys. Bart had Thurman’s height and athletic ability. The other, Ben, inherited the coveted whispering gift that had made a name for Thurman years before.
This time, it mostly manifested itself with horses.
Ben
In his teens, Ben had a desire to ride horses, but unlike his grandfather, he chose Western horses. He loved cattle and riding the horses, and he practiced all the time
“Before he turned 16, we took him to all kinds of roping events where he either headed or healed with a partner,” Lisa recalls. “He did very well and when he graduated, he went to Somerton College and had us bring his horse so he could rope and ride while in school.”
The gift was never as strong with Ben, or perhaps he was not as attuned to it as his grandfather had been, but he did have a real knack for training Western horses. “He was asked to bring his horses to Oklahoma to help herd some cattle that had gotten scattered,” Lisa remembers.
It would not be until Thurman’s great-grandson was born in 2009, that the gift would fully resurface.
Bryson
Almost from the very start, there was something a little “extra” with this boy. For one thing, he was apt to push a chair up to the stove, climb the chair and scramble eggs at not much more than five years old without setting the house afire.
He was still in diapers when he started going to the woods with his parents. He seemed right at home there, was quiet, watchful, and paid keen attention to everything his parents, Ben and Moranda, told him about safety. They drilled into him the rules, one of the most important of which was that if he shot an animal it was to be eaten, not wasted for trophies and the meat left to spoil.
He shot his first deer at the age of five. That’s all it took for him to start on the path that has brought him this far.
His day begins around 5:30 when his feet hit the floor running. He actually gets out of bed without being told (remember, we’re talking about a 16- year-old here). As soon as he’s dressed, he’s headed to the gym, where he works out until it's time to head back home to get ready for school.
School is from 8am-3pm Usually there’s ball or track practice, but if not, it’s back to the gym. “Gotta keep this 6-pack in shape so I can do all this other stuff,” he says.
After his final trip to the gym, Bryson starts his behavior regimen with the bird dogs he raises.
He spends about 30 minutes to an hour a day, five days a week with each pup, starting a puppy as soon as he gets them at eight weeks. “With customer dogs, I start training at 6-8 months old,” he adds.
He doesn’t train with treats. He wants a dog to work because he loves it, not because he likes food.
When looking to add a dog, or when buying a dog for a client, Bryson says he relies heavily on the dog's bloodlines. He keeps his own bloodline records methodically and can show you all the champions among them.
He’s heard the legend of his great-grandfather, and he recognizes that the gift is strong in him, so strong that he is able to communicate in some unfathomable kind of dog whispers, perhaps the same that his elders had known.
Bryson got his first pair of dogs when he was just 11 years old and started raising and training puppies for hunters when he was around 12 because he needed money for a truck. He invested in another pair of dogs, and by the time they gave birth to the first litter, the pups were already spoken for. And then the same thing happened with the second and then the third litter.
This was the beginning of Red Hill Kennels.
It kept him busy, there wasn’t much time to do the things most teenagers did – play video games and dating. Instead, Bryson was cleaning kennels, training pups and older dogs, and sometimes training small children how to be safe around these animals. Some children knew instinctively how to conduct themselves, but others wanted to play and squeal. Those who were sometimes not ready for that responsibility were never allowed to get near the big animals.
Bryson began doing guided hunts near the Tennessee River at the age of 12. He was young, yet these grown men, in groups of four to 15, with only four in the field at a time, for safety, trusted his instincts.
It wasn’t long before he started cooking huge meals, whatever the men were hunting, be it birds, deer, or rabbit, but Bryson’s favorite is wild turkey, both to hunt and for cooking.
Bryson's ingenious plans for his life have taken many twists and turns. He makes plans for his business as he spends hours sanitizing the birthing room for the babies, waiting to assuringly whisper words into the little ears – words never spoken before to man, so that when the time comes, the horse or the dog will know and remember.
There is no record that authenticates the origin or authenticity of either a horse or dog whisperer, yet from time to time people will surface who have remarkable success where others have given up on the animals as untrainable. But when turned over to the people who seem to have the gift, they become gentle and obey commands.
One of the most famous of these men was Rudd Weatherwax, the trainer who took in a disobedient collie named Buddy. After working with the dog it was returned to the owner, exhibiting the same bad behavior (chasing motorcycles). The owner and Weatherwax worked out a deal for what was owed to be the price of the dog. You may have guessed, Buddy was the first Lassie.
Bryson, like most professionals, tries not to get too attached to the young dogs he trains. But he will admit with a grin that he is closer to these dogs than to most people.
Since man domesticated horses and dogs, from time to time, in various places in the world, names would come up when talk of the whispering gift was mentioned, names like Cesar Millan, Victoria Stilwell, and Paul Owens.
Cesar Millan is famous for his TV show Dog Whisperer, Victoria Stilwell for It's Me or the Dog, and Paul Owens is known as "The Original Dog Whisperer" for his positive and non-violent training methods.
Others, less famous but just as effective, like Thurman Hollimon, a local legend, have come, made their mark in the world of animals, and moved on. But somewhere in each of them, like Bryson Hollis, this unfathomable ability shows up again. It is not given to many… an ability more priceless than can be purchased with gold. The gift of the whisperer…
