Houlihan

If a steer stands on his head and overturns and cartwheels, or a horse somersaults with a peculiar, neck-buckling suddenness, these vaults and falls are known as houlihans; hoolies for short.

A hoolie is also a short, overhand, backhanded toss a roper gives his loop in a herd. He does not swing his loop before he tosses his hoolie so not to broadcast to the herd that he is about to catch one poor unfortunate. Whether houlihan or hoolie is used in describing a fall or a loop, it always describes an arc, always comes as a surprise, and is always a misfortune to man, or beast.