Monty Roberts

Amongst my friends who include vets, trainers, riders and equine body workers, the book is somewhat controversial. One of my early mentors in horse rehab (both emotional and physical) knew Monty Roberts and swore he was a genius. Others have sworn that some of Roberts stories were not true.

The book is definitely self-serving in Roberts' claims that he single-handedly brought horse training from cruel horse "breaking" practices to more humane training methods.

Er um. There's a long standing show more tradition of trainers like Ray Hunt, Buck Brannaman or Linda Tellington-Jones, to name a few, who have always incorporated kindness and understanding into their work. Less self-serving than Monte Roberts, their clinics, books, videos and demonstrations have helped educate several generations of horse owners, riders and trainers.

With all that said, Monty Roberts' book still has enough fascinating horse encounters to make it a a worthwhile read. show less

Monty grew up on the rodeo grounds of the town I grew up in. His descriptions of Salinas take me back. He also takes me back to all those poor ponies I mistreated in my child's ignorance of horse behavior and needs. Those poor ponies mistreated me right back. They weren't being stubborn, they were sticking up for themselves. He takes me back to the one pony that was my teacher and best friend. Also to the horses that I loved after. All were dear friends. His training methods are spot on. His show more power of observation a lesson to us all. His example shows that we all need to slow down and watch for a while before acting, be it horse or human. He also begs a queer question: Horses learn what we want. They learn our voice commands. They learn our language. And yet, we can't understand a word they say. So, who is the smart one? If you give a kid a horse or pony, this book along with Black Beauty should be required reading long before the horse or pony is ever saddled. show less

As a young horseman the author learned by watching wild horses how they communicate with each other, and incoporated that into his horse training. He said he used these methods to get mustangs in the wild herd to accept him, but nobody really believed it. He always had the dream to go out and gentle a wild horse in situ, then bring it back to prove to everybody what he could do. Finally did that as an older man, this book has the story documented in photographs (there was also a film made). show more They cut a previously adopted wild mustang out from the group and then Roberts followed him on horseback for three days straight (swapping his own mount each day) until the mustang finally quit fleeing and showed signs of submission. Then he was able to approach it, introduce the tack, and ride it back to the ranch. The horse was trained to work cattle and lived on the ranch for almost a year. Then Roberts decided to give the horse a chance to take back his freedom. Would he prefer to live with the wild horses again, or stay with humans? . . . when the mustang herd was in view they released him to see what he would do. This was all captured on film as well.

It’s a great story. And the photographs are very nice, although feel a tad old in quality nowadays. I really enjoyed reading this book and got through it in just a few sittings, but some parts were a bit confusing or disappointing to me. For one, the author doesn’t actually ride the mustang himself at first. He’s the one who pursues it in the wild until it relents, and puts the first rope and bridle etc on. But then another man gets on the horse and rides it back to the ranch. He didn’t explain why. And then there’s a large section in the middle of the book that’s not about Shy Boy at all. It’s about how the author worked with a racehorse that was terrified of starting gates. Which was interesting, but felt a little off track. I would have rather read more about Shy Boy’s adjustment to living in captivity. This book contains a lot of material that is already in his other books, about his methods and his personal history, if you've read those it feels a bit repetitive. So- I did like this book, it just wasn’t quite what I had expected all the way through. show less

A compelling and facinating look at how we treat the animals who share our lives, what we can learn by listening to them more often (instead of simply ordering them about), and how one man 'bucked' (pun intended) years and years of traditional horse training methodology to challenge horse owners, horse lovers - and frankly anyone who has to interact with any living creature - to reexamine how we communicate.