Monty Roberts- a man of great inspiration for me

"I made a promise to myself that when I die, I will have made a better world for the horse, It's horses I owe everything to."

Monty Roberts

  "A good trainer can hear a horse speak to him. A great trainer can hear a horse whisper." 

About Monty Roberts

 Monty Roberts was born in Salinas, California in 1935. His father was a well known horse breaker. Using cruel methods to break the horse into submission out of fear. Monty disagreed with his father's way of training horses even at an early age.


Monty Robert's father breaking a horse

    During a time when him and his brother were out in Nevada rounding up wild mustangs for Salinas Rodeo Association’s Wild Horse Race, Monty spent hours watching them. It was then, at the age of thirteen, that he saw the silent language of the horse, which he called Equus.

It was with great anticipation that he showed his family and friends what he had learned in Nevada. But instead of the praise he thought he would get, he got criticism from his friends and a beating from his father until he was hospitalized.
Windsor Castle

   From then on and until 1989 he worked far from any spotlight. And then, in 1989, his name was recommended to Queen Elisabeth, and she hired him to train 16 Calvary horses at Windsor Castle. She was very pleased by what he did, she decided to honor him privately for his service to the Royal Family and to the racing establishment. It was then that he got the spotlight and praise for what he had done. 
   Since then, he has been to one side of the world to the other demonstrating to people what he learned in Nevada. 
  

About Equus

   Now you are probably wondering what is so amazing about Equus. Why does it deserve our attention? Well, I'm getting there, be patient... 
   
   Before you can understand what is so amazing about Equus, you have to understand where it is coming from. Thus, here is a brief explanation of the roles of horses in the wild.

   The horse is instinctively a flight animal. And a pack animal. Their strength comes in numbers. Contrary to popular belief, the stallion of a herd is not the 'leader'. That position falls to the lead mare, or alpha mare. Which is usually one of the more mature mares in the pack. She is responsible for the overall safety of the herd. She takes the lead when the herd travels, and determines the best route. She also decides when to move from one place to another, and claims the right to drink first from water holes. Yet another job of the lead mare is discipline. There are many forms of discipline, to be sure, but the worst for a horse is to be sent out away from the herd. The way she would do this is very important to note, she would take an aggressive stance, shoulders square and eyes in contact with the other horse. She continues this action until she thought the horse had learned its lesson. 
   When that happens, she would take on a more passive stance. Dropping her head close to the ground, and not make eye contact. The other horse would know then that she could return to the herd.


   Equus in essence, is taking the natural, God given instincts of horses, and converting it into a way to communicate with them that you want to be their friend. That you are not something to fear, you won't force anything upon them, and also to show that you are willing to listen to them.

A method of how we do this is the Join-up method. 

Now, it is important to note that Monty Roberts did not come up with the join up, but he was the first person to promote it (that I know of, anyways). 

   In the Join-up method, you are taking the position of the lead mare, and sending that unruly horse away. And you keep doing that until you see that the horse wants to come to you. 

That is the moment of Join-up.

My take on all of this

   OK, by now that I have probably bored you with all of this, but if you will please hang in there, I will finish up soon... :D

   As the little header states, this is about what I think on everything that I've written. 

   Let's start with Monty Roberts. First of all, you should know he is not a Christian, so therefore I do not agree with anything he says outside the realm of horses. 
  Back in 2007 (at least I think it was 07), I had just gotten into the 'horse whispering thing', and Monty Roberts played a big part in that. He inspired me to keep my views of Join-up and Equus, even though my friends and family weren't into it as much as me (another thing is that I am as stubborn as a one eyed mule!). 

   Monty Roberts played an important part in shaping my view on training horses, and just horses in general. I sometimes look up horse training videos on YouTube (other than Monty Roberts), and they start off very well, but then they do something like try to push and force a horse into a trailer. I think that people resort to that because they are impatient. 
   Now, as I stated before, he is not a Christian, but there is an old saying "You eat the chicken and spit out the bones". You pick and choose what you agree with. With Monty Roberts, it's his view on horses I agree with.

   Equus- To be blunt, I absolutely love Equus. The idea that horses have a silent language, and that we can tap into and communicate with the horse is just plain amazing.
   Join-up- Now, you probably have already guessed what my take on this is... I love it! The reason is pretty much the same as Equus. How you can take a horse's natural instincts and use it to create a relationship with him is dumbfounding, to me.
   I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! :D