Is Monty Roberts a fraud?

I read Monty Roberts book 'The Man who Listens to horses' and was amazed at what he did with horses and about his life in general. I liked him so much that I decided to do my school project about him. I researched more about him on the internet and found lots of websites that call him a fraud and evidence that shows he supports horse abuse....is this true?

Hmmmmm...care to elaborate further on your sources of information and what is regarded as abuse?

This is balogna. Monty Roberts is my dads best friend.

This is the website that has a lot of stuff on it: http://citizensforjustice.org/monty/
You can also look him up on google and there will be a lot of stuff and apparently his family has released a book called 'horse whispers and lies', correcting all the stuff that was false in his book. As for supporting horse abuse his sponsor apparently is 'Fort Dodge', which uses PMU (pregnant mares urine) as an ingrediant. There has also been a few articles about Monty Roberts being fake in the horse and rider magizine.

I'm not inclined to believe either way. I don't think the recourses of this information are reliable nor is just taking Monty's word for it. I would need a more dependable resource to fully believe it. People so easily make rumors about celebrities, spokes persons, leaders, ect.

Looks like fairly SHADY website to me. I find it very interesting that you choose to throw suspicion on a horseman who has become a cornerstone pioneer in horsemanship.......I believe that a TRUE horseman would make an INFORMED decision about anyones methods of training by first making a thorough investigation and not just stopping at the first propaganda led website! And secondly a true horseman would test a method for truth! I personally take what I know to be true from a myriad of different horsemen and women, henceforth some methods I keep because I know them to be true and some methods I leave because I have failed them!
For TEN years I have taken in abused, neglected, and unloved horses and for many of those horses it was Monty's methods that have brought them back and if you are any kind of horseman, which of course you are implying that you are by choosing to bag a well established horseman, you would understand what I mean by that! I find anything on this website very hard to be credible in any way and I am officially offended by your accusations.
Oh and this is just MY OPINION!

Number one: I didn't make any accusations, I wasn't sure what to believe, that's why I made this board, and i'm sorry if I offended you, but I just wanted to see other peoples opinions before I started using his method in case it was actually abusing horses!
Number 2: I didn't just stumble across a random website, I haven't even read half the stuff on their, I just thought if you wanted to understand why I thought he MIGHT be a fraud, this website has all of the information in one spot.
Number 3: Monty Roberts isn't a pioneer of horsemanship, similar methods of 'Join up' were around before Monty Roberts became famous, and by the way by asking a question i'm not 'bagging' him!!
Number 4: What evidence have you given me to say he's true?

My questions to you....
Number One, If you are not making accusations why did you choose to present this topic with only one side of the debate other than you read his book?
Number Two, You have offered a website that you admit to not reading completly? And yet you are still asking the fraud question?
Number Three, Yes some methods of join up were present before Monty Roberts but it was he that took his method of join up to the world and therefore establishing himself as a pioneering horseman.
Number four, You yourself have read his book and have searched the net for him and have chosen to present only sites that display him in a negative light, surely you have found sites that present his methods? Evidence of truth is found in testing the method which I have already stated.

Ok, as I said before, I don't know whether Monty Roberts is true or not, this doesn't mean I believe he's a liar, it just means I don't trust his training methods and what to find out other people opinions because their is a possibilty that its false, and I don't want to, out of ignorance, start hurting horses. It would be stupid of me to buy his books and training devices and start using them, if I know that there is a lot of people out there who believe they are cruel. Of course his training methods and devices will work, other wise he never would have made a business or a name for himself. This however doesn't mean that they are not cruel to horses.

As for the internet website, I have not read that website completly, when I was looking him up I found lots of different websites each saying different things about him. Today when I read you post asking for sources of information, I looked to find the best website to give you and this website seemed to have the most things. YES I have only shown him in negative light, but this is because that is what you asked for! If you had asked 'Why do you think Monty Roberts is true?' I would have told you to read his book, and given you all the websites that show his methods.

What would happen if a "true horseman" tested every method and training device that was out their on his poor horse. Some of them will be fake, some of them would make the horse worse than he was before then what will they say... oh well i've just ruined a horse with heaps of potenial?!No! I tested the 'Join up' method because there was nothing that could've have done any damage and you didn't have to use any equiptment, and yes that method worked and im not questioning it, i'm questioning him and the stuff he's invented, the join up method has already been proven by other trainers! WHY WOULD I TEST SOMETHING THAT COULD HURT MY HORSE, INSTEAD OF ASKING PEOPLE, WHY WOULD I MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE THAT OTHER PEOPLE HAVE MADE!
AND i'm in the middle of making a thorough investigation...asking people is part of it! Yes i've found plenty of websites saying he's true, but half of them are written by him! I know some people who would never touch his products, and then theres other people, like you, who swear by it! You have no right to say i'm not a true horseman, I would never just believe just one website, and what gives you the right to define a true horseman anyway!

Ok firstly the information you offered which is also the first negative site offered on Google do not prove to me that his methods are false or abusive. This site proves to me that people who have been previously been involved with Monty Roberts have missed the money train that Monty Roberts got on because he is talented in selling a product much like a musician or actor, I have further proven this to myself by reading these sites.
http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/d...2000-0300.html
http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/d...2000-0299.html
And then further with this site, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...711989824-1,00.
I would like to know if you are questioning abuse of methods or abuse of words?
AND anyone who truly cares for horses would investigate methods and I agree you could hurt a horse especially if you thought you could train after reading a handful of books. What other stuff are you referring too as perhaps abusive? What other methods of Monty Roberts have you found proof to be abusive? Perhaps it would be his cause no harm belief?
Yes there are alot of sites with Monty Roberts around 1,210,000 of them and I don't believe he has written half of them.
AND I did not say you were not a true horseman! In fact the world is full of true horseman. (Anyone who truly cares for there charge is a true horseman) I was stating that I believe that someone who truly cared for their horse (a horseman) would make an informed decision about anyones methods and to test a method for truth. Which does not automatically mean you go train after reading a book, Finding truth is even in chatrooms.
AND well I make my definition as MY OPINION and excercise my right to FREEDOM of SPEECH, just as you are entitled to yours.
Oh and I don't swear by anything as I don't swear.