Monty Roberts

If you are looking to Monty Roberts as a mentor on how to lead a calm, uncomplicated life you are going to be severely disappointed but if you look at him as an excellent and accomplished horseman then you will learn a lot. If I wanted to learn about golf I would study Tiger Woods because he is very successful but I would not model my marriage after his nor would I go to him for marital advice. If I wanted to learn to putt better I would listen intently.

Well put. I don't really understand this mentality that people have that leads them to feel that 'role models' or mentors or whatever you want to label a person, have to be perfect examples of human beings. I truly think that MR is great with horses, I think he likes horses a hell of a lot more than he likes people and frankly I don't blame him for that. People are people, we, every single one of us go through life making the occasional monumental cock up. So what! Personally I've made a couple of extremely poor decisions in my life, I'm sure that if I ever became famous in some capacity they would be dragged up, rehashed, probably over inflated by the media (because lets face it its the MEDIA, that's its job) and I would be properly vilified as I would deserve to be for "getting above myself- who does she think she is???".

I saw the BBC documentary on MR, it played on prime TV here. Watching him work with an unbroken mustang out in the wild was amazing and to be honest I will remember it for the rest of my life. He is a man who puts his money where his mouth is, he does what he does and makes no apologies for it. When he speaks about people with horses he uses verbs and he shows what he can do. What more do you want from him.

I couldn't agree more!!

Great posts!

I've used Monty's methods again and again with all types of horses. As mentioned it does depend on the horses place in the herd, a lead mare can take anything up to 2hrs to join up with (from experience) - remember join up is all about asserting your dominance using the horses language, so the more naturally submissive the horse the easier and quicker it will be to join up.

I've been in some unfortunate circumstances where I've seen things I would't like to repeat, and have used the method in front of 'non-believers' and had some amazing results.

Its an great feeling no matter how many times you do it and a great tool to use for introducing new things to your horse.
I've taught the method over a few years now so if you'd like a step by step guide to basic join up let me know, I'd be happy to help!

The book is called "From My Hands To Yours" and it does show exactly how to do it with drawn pictures and everything. Sometimes you really have to try with some horses, others are the look at them 'im going to kill you' look and they zoom on. Each horse is different you just have to work with them and find out their ticks and perks. I am a huge fan of his training and re'training and have been using his style for a while now. Babies are cuter coz they do mst things in an instant just with a look or a minute turn of your shoulder. But yes I love Monty Roberts work and wish more people would learn to be as soft and forgiving like him. So many people arent its sad. Most of my friends are horrible the way they ride not consistent not phasing (ask softer before you get harsher) they just go WHAM bad horse didnt ask for that and continue to kick whip kick whip then wonder why their horses never do it when they squeeze!!!!!! The goal to get to should be just thinking it and its done. True Harmony!

Nice post!

I think Monty Roberts is great. I read one of his books and would like to research more about him. Hopefully I will be able to get more involved with his ideas and concepts.